Tell Gov Stein to rein in Duke Energy!
Take ActionToday NC WARN filed a petition with the NC Utilities Commission that seeks to end the longstanding pattern of Duke Energy and the regulators deciding billion-dollar cases behind closed doors. Specifically, we’re calling for an open discussion – with all interested parties – on a rules change that would create a fair and transparent process for settling those cases.
The Charlotte Observer reported on our petition July 18, 2016:
Duke Energy, Piedmont Natural Gas CEOs to testify on acquisition
By setting a $98 million bond in today’s order, the Utilities Commission again has wrongly attempted to block our access to the courthouse – and shield itself and Duke Energy from scrutiny over the approval of a new $1 billion power plant in Asheville that is unneeded, would rely on a shaky supply of shale gas, and would further speed the climate crisis.
For at least the fifth straight time in a major Duke Energy case, state regulators have undermined any semblance of fair process – this time by cutting a backroom deal with the utility in a $6 billion merger with Piedmont Natural Gas even before receiving input from either the public or formal parties to the case. The NC Utilities Commission took the extra step this time of granting Duke’s request to disallow testimonies by two natural gas experts fielded by NC WARN and allies.
In one of the strangest regulatory cases in state history, a 45-day rubber-stamp approval of a $1.1 billion gas-fired power plant in Asheville has been swamped by the subsequent 120-day battle over our right to appeal the pro-utility regulators’ ruling, a fight with no end in sight. Late yesterday NC WARN and The Climate Times filed an expert’s affidavit rebutting each point of Duke Energy’s recent call to escalate the appeal bond to $240 million.
NC WARN sent the Inspector General of the US EPA a statement signed by 130 diverse organizations calling for an investigation into our June 8 complaint that scientific fraud and cover-up by agency officials has already wasted crucial years in slowing the climate crisis and has enhanced hazards for gas facility workers and neighbors.
NC WARN charged today that a high-ranking federal official connected to the fossil fuel industry committed scientific fraud and possibly criminal misconduct in a case with sweeping ramifications for global climate change and the safety of workers and neighbors of natural gas sites across much of the United States. Read coverage by the LA Times, Washington Post and other media outlets.
Late today the NC Court of Appeals dealt a rare blow to the state utilities commission and Duke Energy by reversing an order that would have blocked a court appeal of a controversial power plant in Asheville. The court agreed with NC WARN and The Climate Times, who argued that a $10 million bond set by the commission as a condition of appealing the plant approval was not based on evidence.
Today NC WARN and The Climate Times called for the NC Court of Appeals to immediately suspend regulators’ efforts to block our appeal of a Duke Energy power plant in Asheville. Last week, the NC Utilities Commissioners ordered us to post a $10 million bond before we can ask the Court of Appeals to overturn the Commission’s rubber-stamp approval of the plant.
