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.
