Duke Energy Rate Hikes, Fracked-Gas Pipelines, and Data Centers! Oh My!
Hey, powerful pipeline peeps! North Carolinians across our watershed know that the future of energy is clean, renewable, and community-owned. That's why across our watershed, our community is standing strong and saying: No Duke Energy Rate Hikes! No Fracked-Gas Pipelines! And No Data Centers! Communities Over Corporate Profits!
As folks in Chatham County work on opposing an Enbridge proposed fracked gas expansion project, it is important to understand the full scope of what is at stake.
This project would threaten the health and safety of rural farmland. It would also threaten the tributaries of the Deep, Haw, and Rocky rivers, along with our neighbors who swim with fins, fly with wings, and crawl with paws.
It is also important to know how projects like this one connect to the larger narrative of the Fossil Fuel Buildout, which threatens North Carolina's water, air, and land.
According to the email below from NC WARN:
"Duke Energy CEO Harry Sideris recently boasted to corporate investors, “We have a [recruiting] team in place that their goal, 7 days a week, 24 hours a day, is how do we get these things signed quicker?” Duke’s North Carolina president Kendal Bowman confirmed (1:03:00) during the hearing that this same aggressive recruiting of energy-guzzling data centers is in use in NC."
When working with opponents of the SSEP pipeline, I learned that the build-out in natural gas infrastructure in NC is being caused almost solely by the increased energy demand that Duke Energy is claiming it anticipates from large data centers.
Given the way utilities make profits for their shareholders, the rationale is clear. According to the attached article, ". . . the value of a publicly traded utility, unlike other sectors, is directly tied to its capital spending. The more companies invest in regulator-approved infrastructure, the larger the asset base on which they earn guaranteed regulated returns."
Duke Energy makes its profits from building infrastructure, so they recruit big energy users to NC, no matter the impact on the public.
And then there's this from the email below:
"A witness for the Utilities Commission’s Public Staff stated (1:42:55) that Duke is acting in the interest of shareholders over ratepayers by overzealously signing new large load customers. The Public Staff now recommends (4:03:15) that the Commission impose a 1-year pause on new data centers and scrutinize new contracts for any future data centers."
Wow! The Utilities Commission staff said this!
(In addition to rate hikes, the utility asked us to conserve energy between 3 to 8 pm, because of high summer temperatures straining the grid. We were asked to raise our thermostats to the highest comfortable setting, postpone laundry until evening or the next morning, avoid prolonged use of an electric range or oven, and avoid running washers, dryers, and dishwashers during those peak hours.)
Keep this in mind as temperatures soar this summer and Duke Energy asks YOU to set your thermostat 78 to save energy.
Take care of yourselves and each other,
~ Aidan Loretz (she/her, they/them)
Haw River Assembly Community Organizer & 7 Directions of Service Pipelines Campaign Manager
