Activists Express Concerns About Proposed Duke Energy Rate Hike

CHARLOTTE, NC -State regulators heard from the public about Duke Energy’s request to raise rates by more than 6%.

About two dozen protesters gathered outside the Mecklenburg County courthouse ahead of Thursday’s Duke Energy rate hike hearing.

“No, it’s not okay to continue raising rates especially when people who are impoverished are being impacted,” said Jerome Wagner, a climate activist.

He organized the demonstration and says Duke Energy is mismanaging it’s money, not putting enough funds into renewable energy and making customers foot the bill for coal ash clean up.

“This will put an additional burden on people that are already in many cases trapped for energy costs in their households,” said Wagner.

Duke Energy is seeking a rate increase of 6.7% for the average customer.  Regulators say the typical bill will go up by about $5.75 each month.

“We don’t take any rate increase lightly,” said Bill Norton a Duke Energy spokesperson, ” We work day in and day out to keep costs as low as possible.”

Norton says they’re retiring coal plants sooner than anticipated, making technology upgrades and removing coal ash from basins.

“What we try and do is space it out for as long a window as possible to try and minimize the impact on our customers,” said Norton.

The current rate hike would cover only about one-third of the total coal ash clean up costs. Which means more rate hike hearings in the future.

“We’re held accountable every single day,” said Corin Mack, the president of Charlotte’s NAACP, “today we’re saying, we’re holding you accountable.”

The full commission will begin the evidentiary hearing on the rate hike on March 23rd. A vote will happen in Summer 2020.