Duke Energy’s North Carolina Carbon Plan Flouts the Law

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. – A group of clean energy advocates filed a motion asking the North Carolina Utilities Commission to affirm the binding requirements of two laws that monopoly utility Duke Energy’s proposed North Carolina Carbon Plan would otherwise violate. The Southern Environmental Law Center represents the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, the Sierra Club, and the Natural Resources Defense Council in the Carbon Plan proceeding.

House Bill 951, a 2021 bipartisan state law which Duke helped shape, requires North Carolina’s power sector to reduce heat-trapping carbon pollution at least 70% below 2005 levels by 2030, while doing so in a reliable and cost-effective manner. Duke’s proposed plan would slow-walk the development of reliable, affordable clean energy resources and miss the 2030 requirement by five or more years. The utility is also proposing a massive, polluting methane gas buildout that would fail to comply with federal laws that strictly limit carbon pollution from new gas plants after 2032.

With evidentiary hearings on the Carbon Plan scheduled to begin later this month, the clean energy advocates asked the utilities commission for a “declaratory ruling” which would confirm the clearly defined legal deadline and other requirements by which Duke must abide.

“Duke Energy needs to return to the drawing board with its proposal, not move forward with a plan based on an unlawful foundation,” said David Neal, senior attorney at the Southern Environmental Law Center, which represents the clean energy groups before the commission. “Duke’s plan is built on ignoring the governing deadline, ensuring years more carbon pollution that our children and communities will never get back. We’re asking the utilities commission to protect North Carolina by declaring the clear requirements for a lawful Carbon Plan and affirming their importance.”