Quick Facts:
NC-based Duke Energy is the one of the world’s largest corporate electric utilities and one of its biggest carbon polluters.
Rather than transitioning quickly to renewable energy, Duke does only enough to make it look green, while rapidly building out its fracked gas infrastructure, spewing more and more climate-wrecking methane into the atmosphere.
Duke’s business model is: build power plants, raise rates, control government and distort public debate.
The corporation spends $80 million of customer money each year to influence decision-makers and public opinion. Learn how we’re pushing to end Duke influence money.
Through legal and regulatory challenges and direct appeals for cooperation, NC WARN and allies are vigorously pressing Duke to get on the right side of climate history by joining the clean energy revolution.
NC WARN has been challenging Duke Energy’s business model for years. Here are some recent examples.
NC WARN is honored to be a co-founding member of Energy Justice NC: End the Duke Monopoly, a diverse new coalition of local, state and national groups that has launched a vigorous statewide campaign to end Duke Energy’s monopoly control of North Carolina’s energy markets and public officials.
We’re running this “End the Duke Monopoly” ad online and on TV stations around the state.
In Duke Energy’s 2018 rate hike case before the NC Utilities Commission, we exposed the fact that the corporation spends upwards of $80 million a year to influence public opinion and government decision-makers. In November 2018, we joined with Friends of the Earth to petition the NC Utilities Commission to stop the practice. Learn more.
In February 2018, NC WARN and more than 50 other organizations wrote a letter to Duke Energy CEO Lynn Good informing her of the latest NASA data showing the pace of climate change is accelerating. We called on her to get on the right side of climate history before it’s too late by stopping methane emissions from natural gas operations and expeditiously moving from fossil fuels to renewables paired with storage and energy-saving measures. Read the letter and see the list of signers. See the newspaper ad we ran in conjunction with the campaign.
NC Utilities Commission Chairman Ed Finley
NC WARN has urged state regulators to break their pattern of settling rate cases and mergers with Duke Energy behind closed doors. The long-running practice makes involvement by the public and intervenors almost meaningless and undercuts the public interest. The utility gets exactly what it wants, covered by a thin pretense of regulatory oversight. We called on Attorney General Josh Stein not to be drawn into backroom negotiations, and instead to stand up for the public. Learn more.
Over the years, NC WARN has reached out to Duke Energy executives many times, both publicly and privately, to seek collaboration toward progress away from fossil fuels and toward the clean energy future we all want and need. See some examples here.
We have challenged Duke Energy in the federal and state courts and with federal and state regulatory bodies. See all legal filings here. Pictured: Staff attorney Kristen Wills at the NC Supreme Court during hearing of our Solar Freedom case.
Read about other campaigns challenging Duke Energy: coal ash, Dukeasaurus and more!
Recent News
Climate watchdog files FCC complaint over public radio station’s Duke Energy promos — Facing South
Duke Energy, the North Carolina-based monopoly electric utility giant, is among the corporate sponsors of programming on WUNC, the flagship National Public Radio member station serving North Carolina’s Research Triangle Region, which includes the state capital of Raleigh. The Duke Energy-underwritten spots — third-party pieces read aloud by station personnel — are the target of a complaint that was filed this week with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) by the climate justice advocacy group NC WARN, which says the station is violating the agency’s rules for noncommercial radio.
SEE ALL Duke/Kochs' Control of Government POSTSFederal Complaint Filed vs WUNC Radio Over Duke Energy Ads — News Release from NC WARN
Watchdog group NC WARN today is filing a complaint with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) charging that public radio station WUNC repeatedly airs sponsorship announcements by Duke Energy that violate rules for noncommercial stations. We are calling for the federal regulators to end the deceptive ads and require full disclosure of Duke Energy’s spending with the station.
See coverage of our complaint in Facing South
