As North Carolinians continue to grapple with rolling blackouts, rising energy bills, and recovery from a once-in-a-generation hurricane event, another pending environmental catastrophe is developing in our backyards.
On Monday, May 5, the North Carolina Utilities Commission will hold a public hearing to gather feedback on Duke Energy’s plans to build a second new methane gas power plant near its existing coal plant on Hyco Lake in Person County as part of the state’s decarbonization plan.
Methane is the primary component of “natural” gas. Widespread use of this type of fuel releases nitrogen oxides and methane gas, which are linked to asthma, lung disease, and other problems for human health and the environment, such as poor air quality and climate change. State law requires these plants to obtain a Certificate of Public Convenience and Necessity (CPCN), which authorizes a utility to construct a new facility in “the public interest.”
These new gas plants are baked into Duke Energy’s proposed “carbon plan.” House Bill 951 required the Commission to devise a plan by the end of 2022 that would cut carbon emissions by 70 percent by 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality by 2050. The Commission delegated Carbon Plan development to Duke Energy, which has proposed a plan that fails to meet those legal requirements, unnecessarily postpones changes that could benefit the state’s environment right away, and doesn’t even provide the lowest possible cost to consumers.
Ironically, a Duke Energy-commissioned study revealed that by tripling solar and onshore wind capacity, the state could meet its carbon goals quicker, more cheaply, and with no additional methane gas power plants. Even with this knowledge, on January 31, Duke Energy filed for more gas power plants, slowing carbon reduction goals and putting overburdened and under-resourced communities, in particular, at risk.
Duke Energy also estimates the new gas power plants and nuclear reactors will increase customer bills by 39 percent for Duke Energy Progress customers and by 73 percent for Duke Energy Carolinas customers. I’m a Duke Energy Progress customer, so for me, that means a significant electric bill increase — from $170 per month on average to nearly $240 every month.
Duke Energy didn’t want you to know about the May 5 hearing. They asked to only notify their customers who lived in Person County, but, Duke customers across the state will be paying for their plans.
If you are a North Carolina Duke Energy customer and don’t want to pay for any more polluting and costly climate-damaging energy resources, you can submit your public comments using the resources below.
Tuesday, May 6 — 6:30pm — online via WebEx.
How to sign up:
What to say (talking points courtesy of Clean Water for North Carolina):
Showing 2,917 results
Sophie Loeb | April 23, 2025
As North Carolinians continue to grapple with rolling blackouts, rising energy bills, and recovery from a once-in-a-generation hurricane event, another pending environmental catastrophe is developing in our backyards. On Monday, May 5, the North Carolina Utilities Commission will hold a public hearing to gather feedback on Duke Energy’s plans to build a second new methane gas power plant near its existing coal plant on Hyco Lake in Person County as part of the state’s decarbonization plan.
Federico Holm | April 21, 2025
Since our last update (April 7), we have seen some important developments regarding Congressional Review Act (CRA) resolutions. In addition to the two resolutions signed into law on March 15 (easing protections that will mostly benefit the fossil fuel industry), one more resolution has become law.
Bryan Dunning | April 16, 2025
On April 8, the Trump administration issued the “Protecting American Energy From State Overreach” executive order (EO), another in a blitz of orders and declarations focused on the energy sector. As with the other energy-related EOs, it contains numerous references to advancing so-called “energy dominance” — which is largely and ideologically focused on fossil fuel industries — despite the United States already being “dominant” in this sector.
Sophie Loeb | April 15, 2025
In the midst of countless federal deregulatory actions, it’s easy to lose track of what’s happening to undermine states’ climate regulations and laws. Here in North Carolina, we are facing the cascading consequences of federal deregulation layered on top of threats to our state’s carbon plan law.
James Goodwin | April 10, 2025
During the night of April 9, President Donald Trump continued his administration’s radical assault on our nation’s critical system of regulatory safeguards with three new executive orders and a separate memorandum. These actions build on several previous ones that target regulatory safeguards, and they traffic in a lot of the same false rhetoric about the essential role our regulatory system plays in our society. But what makes these actions different is the manner in which they trample on administrative law and the procedural protections that it is meant to uphold.
Daniel Farber | April 9, 2025
On April 8, flanked by a few coal miners in hard hats, President Donald Trump signed four executive orders to restore their industry to its past glory. Given that coal is now the most expensive way to generate power other than nuclear, that’s going to be a heavy lift. Like many of Trump’s orders, these four are full of threats and bluster but will have little immediate effect.
Federico Holm | April 7, 2025
Since our last update (March 31), we have seen some movement regarding CRA resolutions. There have been no new resolutions signed into law (only two so far), but two more resolutions have cleared both chambers, so we can expect a signature from the president soon.
Federico Holm | April 1, 2025
On March 3, Randy Moore, the 20th chief of the U.S. Forest Service, stepped down after a lifelong career that started in 1981. A soil scientist and forester, Moore was also the first African American chief of the Forest Service. His resignation came on the heels of a widespread wave of mass firings of Forest Service personnel that amounted to approximately 10% of its workforce. In his farewell letter, Moore laid bare his frustration regarding the ongoing dismantling of the agency and the need for personnel to stick together and remain nimble, adding that for those in the Forest Service “feeling uncertainty, frustration, or loss, you are not alone.” Moore was replaced by Tom Schultz, a timber executive with deep ties to the logging industry. Schultz is also the first chief in Forest Service history who has not previously worked in the agency. In his introduction letter, Schultz highlighted his 25 years of land management, focusing on his timber and mineral extraction directive roles in Idaho.
Joseph Tomain, Sidney A. Shapiro | March 31, 2025
As the authors of a book that argues that a combination of government and markets has built a country truest to its fundamental political values, we see plans to radically downsize government as a contradiction of the historical evidence. As our book relates, the country has established a web of laws that interact with markets to build up our infrastructure, protect people, and help the most vulnerable among us.