There’s been a lot of rhetoric from the media recently concerning Duke Energy and the rate increase that Duke is seeking approval for from you, the North Carolina Utilities Commission. Can you hear me now? Any rate increase that Duke is allowed to have is utterly reprehensible, of questionable legality and not acceptable to we the citizens of North Carolina.
Why is Duke trying to expand sales to large municipalities outside of Duke’s service area? Duke is a North Carolina public utility. If Duke wants to continue to provide the public electricity here in North Carolina they must serve the needs of North Carolinians!
It is important that Duke’s Chairman of the Board, James Rogers, understands that his job is to serve me the customer, not the reverse.
Why is Duke trying, over the objections of its customers, to build Cliffside—another coal-fired electric generating plant that North Carolina doesn’t need with money that Duke is trying to take from me? The ‘ah-ha’ moment in regards to coal-fired generating plants happened for me when the TVA disaster occurred in Kingston Tennessee in late 2008. Because of that disaster and TVA’s lying about the events that led up to it, what happened and the aftermath, I don’t believe that any coal-fired electric generating plant can legally and morally be labeled as ‘clean.’ And, destroying mountains, our mountains, my mountains, is not a moral reason to generate electricity.
Duke’s shareholders need to realize that the leadership of Duke Energy is bankrupt when it comes to workable ideas for clean, alternative energy sources. Therefore I have a proposal for you, the commissioners that you must strongly suggest to James Rogers and Duke Energy.
Duke can begin to redeem its tattered public image by joining with communities throughout the great state of North Carolina and helping citizens to create small alternative energy community-cooperatives which would be owned and controlled by the citizens. Instead of continuing to foolishly build bloated inefficient ways of generating electricity and polluting our environment with dirty hazardous coal-fired plants, Duke can finally begin to serve its customers, the citizens of North Carolina, by providing financing, technical support and general know-how for community-based solar, wind and hydroelectric projects and partner with the citizens of North Carolina to move forward to a clean and independent energy future.
Thursday, September 24, 2009
Monday, July 13, 2009
Duke's "Great Fear"
Over the past few weeks several individuals and one media outlet have provided Jackson County citizens with a comedic Greek Chorus concerning the Jackson County commissioners and their decision to condemn the Dillsboro Dam and the land around it. News stories that have been written about the commissioners supposed ‘exercise in futility’ have come seemingly from a corporate spin doctor’s pen. Other individuals have attempted to “shame” us for not ‘doing the right thing’ and allowing Duke to have its way and destroy a county icon and significant cultural resource.
One individual claims that the powers of a private corporation (Duke) supersede the powers of a duly elected body (Jackson County Commissioners). Pardon me; I thought that the United States was a republic and not an oligarchy. Things change I suppose, despite ‘silly little pieces of paper’ such as the Constitution of the United States. The supposed “cornerstone” of the integrated Nantahala/Tuckaseigee 2003 Settlement Agreement was actually an ‘agreement’ rammed though by Duke as a sop to the ‘stakeholders’ and their own selfish agendas. This silenced the rest of the environmental community and curried favor with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). Duke’s “Great Fear” is that they won’t get another half century of a licensed monopoly on hydro-electric production in Jackson County and make hundreds of millions of dollars from us, the rate-payers.
Yes, it is truly an absolute shame to see Jackson County’s limited natural and cultural resources raped once again. A huge electric power monopoly and a few selfish, self-centered ‘stakeholders’ are going to get what they want—no matter the cost. And the public be damned!
Regardless of the outcome of the FERC re-licensing process, I pity the poor souls (and there have been quite a few) who would sell themselves and the cultural resources of Jackson County for little more than, comparatively speaking, thirty pieces of silver. I can sleep at night; can they?
One individual claims that the powers of a private corporation (Duke) supersede the powers of a duly elected body (Jackson County Commissioners). Pardon me; I thought that the United States was a republic and not an oligarchy. Things change I suppose, despite ‘silly little pieces of paper’ such as the Constitution of the United States. The supposed “cornerstone” of the integrated Nantahala/Tuckaseigee 2003 Settlement Agreement was actually an ‘agreement’ rammed though by Duke as a sop to the ‘stakeholders’ and their own selfish agendas. This silenced the rest of the environmental community and curried favor with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). Duke’s “Great Fear” is that they won’t get another half century of a licensed monopoly on hydro-electric production in Jackson County and make hundreds of millions of dollars from us, the rate-payers.
Yes, it is truly an absolute shame to see Jackson County’s limited natural and cultural resources raped once again. A huge electric power monopoly and a few selfish, self-centered ‘stakeholders’ are going to get what they want—no matter the cost. And the public be damned!
Regardless of the outcome of the FERC re-licensing process, I pity the poor souls (and there have been quite a few) who would sell themselves and the cultural resources of Jackson County for little more than, comparatively speaking, thirty pieces of silver. I can sleep at night; can they?
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