Customers Speak Out at Public Hearing on Proposed Duke Energy Rate Increase

CHARLOTTE, NC – Tuesday night, Utility Commissioners heard from the public over a proposed Duke Energy rate hike. The company wants to raise your power bill by an average 14 percent if you live in North Carolina.

Part of the money from this rate hike would go toward Duke Energy’s plans to remove coal ash or cap it in place.

Critics say shareholders are the ones who should pay.

“We are being ignored. And this is the only way we’ve got to get our voice out,” says Cleveland Co. resident Roger Hollis.

Hollis lives near coal ash pits at the Rogers Energy Center.

He came to Uptown Charlotte to protest the proposed rate hike.

“You can’t, you can’t fight it. Duke has a monopoly,” Hollis says.

He and dozens of others marched from the Duke Energy Center to the Mecklenburg County Courthouse.

That’s where the public had a chance to speak out in front of the North Carolina Utilities Commission.

“Duke Energy needs to learn to reach into their own pockets to pay for the trash that they created,” says Belmont resident Amy Brown.

Duke Energy is asking to increase revenues by $647 million.

The company says the average customer would see their bill go up by almost $20 a month.

Duke says the money would also go toward investments in hydro, solar, natural gas, improving grid technology.

WCCB Charlotte asked a Duke Energy spokesperson why the shareholder’s aren’t responsbile for that cost of managing coal ash.

“The ash that’s in those ponds are a result of years of electricity that we’ve generated from those plants. So anything related to operations are included in our base rates, says Paige Layne with Duke Energy.