Duke Energy wants you to pay ITS bills: Say NO to S261

North Carolinians spoke up loudly against Senate Bill 261, which would force Duke Energy customers to pay the cost of building new power plants, even if they're never finished.

South Carolina and Georgia residents can attest: Saddling utility customers with the cost of "construction work in progress" is a losing proposition – for ratepayers, not for the utility that passes along the cost and the risk its shareholders should bear.

Our opposition has slowed the bill down in the N.C. House, so now Duke and its Senate supporters are trying a new tactic: They buried the language from S261 deep in the Senate's massive state budget proposal (S257).

We're not fooled, and we're not backing down.

Use our form to contact your N.C. House member today: Urge them to fight against S261 and any legislative clones that try to force YOU to carry the costs of Duke Energy's risky construction projects.

S261 and the Senate budget would also let Duke Energy break the promise it made to a bipartisan legislative majority to lower its carbon emissions by 2030, in return for an easier road to increasing your electricity bills – an opportunity Duke quickly seized. If Duke gets to weasel out of its carbon-cutting promise, that means any new or expanded energy plants will likely be powered by fossil fuels.

Contact your N.C. House member today. Tell them Duke Energy should keep its promises and pay its own bills – not dump its problems on everyday North Carolinians.

Be sure to personalize your message! Your House member needs to hear your experience as a utility ratepayer, and why you believe a monopoly like Duke Energy should be accountable to all of us. Use the talking points below to get started.

What's wrong with S261?

Forces ordinary ratepayers to pay for expensive new energy plants while the plants are being built. There's no obligation for them to ever come on line, erasing any accountability for the rate hikes Duke will use to finance construction.
Drops the near-term carbon-cutting goal set in bipartisan legislation four years ago. Duke Energy got more latitude to raise rates because it promised to cut carbon emissions by 70% by 2030 (the goal targeted for elimination) and achieve carbon neutrality by 2050.
Erasing the 2030 carbon reduction goal means that new power plants built in the near term (and financed by rate hikes) won't need to be fueled by affordable, renewable fuels. Duke can also stall the transition of existing plants to cleaner fuels.

20220623 Belews Creek NC coal plant - MikaelaCurry 800h.jpg

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Please fight any attempt to let Duke Energy pass CWIP costs to us

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Please help protect your constituents from shouldering the risks and costs of Duke Energy's pollution expansion plans, and make the utility uphold the carbon-cutting promises it made to a bipartisan legislative majority just a few years ago.

Senate Bill 261 is just one legislative route the utility is using to ensure that ratepayers cover the cost of building risky polluting power plants, even if they never go into operation. As the House wisely slowed S261's progress, the Senate tried to make an end run around your chamber by putting the bill's language into the Senate budget proposal (S257). Who knows where it may pop up next?

We have only to look south to see how people can be hurt by "construction work in progress" (CWIP) legislation. South Carolinians are still paying for a $9 billion nuclear plant project that was abandoned in 2017 without producing a single kilowatt of power. In Georgia, utility customers are paying every month for nuclear reactors that took an extra seven years to complete as costs ballooned from $14 billion to $35 billion.

In addition to taking money out of our wallets, this legislation would help poison our air. S261 and its legislative clones would let Duke Energy renege on its pledge to lower carbon emissions by 2030 – a promise it made to the N.C. General Assembly in return for getting a smoother path to raising our utility bills. Duke has taken full advantage of that glide path, so it should keep up its end of the deal.

Since Duke Energy won't keep its word, I ask you to keep yours by protecting your constituents from this attack on our household funds and our families' health. Please oppose S261, its inclusion in the Senate budget, and any other attempt to game the legislative process to benefit Duke shareholders at the expense of our state's people and environment.

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