It’s tragic that Duke Energy, the Koch Brothers and their pro-fossil fuel front groups such as the John Locke Foundation, Civitas and Americans for Prosperity were able to recklessly disrupt North Carolina’s once-growing renewable energy industry.
Duke/Kochs' Control of Government
Duke Energy and others in the energy industry consistently use deceptive public relations – and millions of customer dollars – to distort the debate over important decisions. Duke’s control over NC state government is significant. We must face this “inconvenient truth” in order to make the shift to clean, safe energy. This corporate influence has, in the words of Dr. James Hansen, wounded our democracy.
Particularly egregious are efforts by Duke, the Koch brothers and other industry powers to slow the growth of solar energy and, in North Carolina, to prevent competition from third-party providers of no-upfront-cost solar deals that put solar energy within reach of many more homeowners and businesses. Another good example of corporate power is the passage in some states of Construction Work in Progress laws that allow utilities to charge customers in advance for building expensive new plants that aren’t even needed.
In 2015, Duke Energy, the Koch Brothers and others successfully kept the Energy Freedom bill bottled up in committee at the NC legislature. The bill would have opened up NC to third-party solar deals. Read about our 2015 Duke Hates Solar campaign in support of the bill.
Read about our Solar Freedom project at Faith Community Church in Greensboro — a test case in the state’s ban on third-party sales of electricity.
Direct Appeals for Dialogue with Duke Energy
NC WARN has repeatedly reached out to Duke Energy executives, seeking to collaborate with them on moving away from obstructionism and toward a clean energy future. A few examples are listed here.
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A Church Challenges Duke Energy Over Solar — WUNC
The church, it turns out, did not pay to install the solar panels, like a homeowner would. Instead, NC Warn, an advocacy group, paid for the panels and is selling electricity back to the church at about half the rate Duke Energy charges.
It’s called third-party sales, and it’s illegal in just four states in the country: North Carolina, Oklahoma, Kentucky, and Florida.
Solar Bashing Fight in Florida Exposed
Trigaux: Keen to preserve own power, Florida electric utilities up fight against solar By Robert Trigaux Got to hand it to the powers who so deftly control Florida’s electricity market. Just when solar power finally shows signs of progress in the Sunshine State, the cabal of electric utility monopolies and …
Editors Beware Solar Deception by Duke, Kochs, Allies — News Release from NC WARN
The national campaign by entrenched fossil fuel corporations to stanch the rapid growth of solar power is now playing out full-bore in the North Carolina legislative and public opinion arenas. What needs to be a healthy debate about our state’s electricity and climate path forward is being hijacked by Duke Energy and Koch brother forces that are distorting issues in dire need of clarity.
Red tape preventing Greensboro church from getting solar energy — News & Record
It’s the latest chapter in a solar industry saga in which North Carolina soars above other states in many categories of solar deployment linked to large-scale commercial power projects, but paradoxically it lags in dispersing this burgeoning technology onto rooftops throughout its cities and rural areas.
Freedom Act would allow third-party sales of solar power in N.C. — News & Record
If it [the Energy Freedom Act] becomes law, it would legalize the solar partnership between NC WARN and the Greensboro church without the need for commission approval of the local plan, which is aimed at trailblazing a method of financing that could make solar-energy system affordable for more people.
Greensboro church installs solar panels, challenges Duke on selling electricity — News & Record
Will Duke Energy Kill NC’s Solar Industry? — NC WARN TV ad
Utilities wage campaign against rooftop solar — The Washington Post
Solar power and competition are good for all customers — Winston Salem Journal
Op-Ed by Rev. Nelson Johnson and Jim Warren. It is curious that Duke Energy is aggressively lobbying against the new Energy Freedom Act, bipartisan state legislation that would open the door to rooftop solar competition, thereby helping the same low-wealth communities for which Duke now professes concern.