Tag Archives: charlotte

How will history remember Duke Energy CEO Jim Rogers: climate champion or criminal?

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Jim Rogers has a choice between clean and dirty energy.

Jim Rogers has a choice between clean and dirty energy.

“We must move at ‘China speed’ to combat global warming.”

That’s what Jim Rogers, CEO of the largest utility in the country and one of the world’s biggest carbon polluters, Duke Energy, said once upon a time. Now Rogers, who has agreed to retire at the end of 2013, has seven months left to prove he meant it, and determine how history will judge his climate legacy: as a leader who helped start a clean energy revolution, or a polluter who told a nice story about global warming, but never acted to stop it.

That’s why Greenpeace and NC WARN, one of our allies in North Carolina, published an ad today in the Charlotte Observer challenging Rogers to stop talking and start acting, by directing his company to invest in solar energy, wind energy, and energy efficiency throughout the Duke Energy service territory. Continue reading →

Southeasterners can thank Duke Energy when global warming gives them twice as many thunderstorms

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A new study suggests that global warming could increase thunderstorms in the Southeast

A new study from NASA suggests that global warming could increase the number of violent, damaging thunderstorms that strike the U.S., particularly in the Southeast, which could see a 100 % increase in the number of days with thunderstorms. Continue reading →

Tidings of Clean Energy Success and a Cleaner New Year

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Across the world, holidays of all traditions are celebrating light and hope. Against a backdrop of these holiday times that bring 2012 to a close and give birth to 2013, we naturally reflect on the year that has been and the coming year that can be. Many of you reading this article played a role in making 2012 a great one for clean energy, health and a livable climate. For that we are thankful and wish many happy returns and look forward to continued collaboration. First, let’s celebrate what we accomplished. Continue reading →

Behind the scenes: Charlotte’s coal ash problem

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This post originally appeared in Coal Ash Chronicles.

Rhiannon Fionn-Bowman, an independent journalist, aims to answer questions about coal ash during a nationwide tour where she’ll collect stories from all sides of the coal ash issue and share them  on CoalAshChronicles.com. But, you don’t have to wait for her to come to you, you can share your story now — upload it here.

Dear readers,
Here’s something for you to keep in mind as you read the news: There’s always more to the story.

Since I’m collecting coal ash stories, I’ll summarize a couple of my own regarding Charlotte, North Carolina’s coal ash issue to give you a peek behind the scenes. Continue reading →

Greenpeace, Dow Jones agree: Duke not a global leader in sustainability

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A.E. Bates airship calls out Duke's dirty energy rate hike.

In perhaps the most public rebuke of Duke’s overstuffed environmental rhetoric to date, Dow Jones booted Duke from its list of greenest companies in the world today. As least as far as Dow Jones is concerned, Duke can no longer claim the mantle of ‘global leader’ in sustainability. When it comes to toxic pollution and climate change, Rogers and Duke Energy need to get out of denial and into action on behalf of the more than 7 million households they serve. Continue reading →

Corporate Confrontations and the DNC

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Protesters at Duke Energy

Protesters at Duke Energy headed off by police

The convention in Charlotte is over and I can’t help but write down some thoughts. Lots of environmentalists are happy that President Obama at least made some mention of climate change in his speech last night. I am too. That said, I think there are some systemic issues that I’d like to point out with what happened in Charlotte.

This city was unnecessarily locked down. Groups of between 15 and 20 officers on bike and on foot were everywhere. Tinted black Suburbans cruised the streets while massive checkpoints dominated the major thoroughfares. All areas of uptown Charlotte were gated and pathways were walled off. I saw one estimate that five miles of barricades have been ordered. That seems like an understatement.

Freedom of movement and speech should not be severely restricted in a functional democracy. It simply wasn’t this way 4 years ago in Denver.

Something is different.

Charlotte is the corporate headquarters of Bank of America, Wells Fargo and Duke Energy. Here, these companies run the show. As Duke CEO Jim Rogers spoke last night about a “grandchildren test,” I couldn’t help but think there was a good deal of hypocrisy in the air.

He wants new nukes – those create radioactive waste that has a half-life of thousands of years. He is putting two new coal plants online within the next year – these will scour the land, poison generations of people and destroy the climate. He has no plans for new wind and solar.

Then again, this convention has been all about contrasts. Though called the “people’s convention,” it has been paid for by corporations. Despite the token displays of solar panels and recycling centers, there are four coal-fired power plants and two nuclear plants that ring the city.

Again, this is a corporate convention.

It’s infuriating that corporations can dictate the scope of our Constitutional rights to free speech, association, and movement has become surprisingly normal. The lines of police around the banks and energy companies headquartered here makes that abundantly clear.

That’s why I came to Charlotte and that’s why I’m an activist: to make things better. Not to be a partisan. We have an environmental objective in mind: a more just, diverse and ecologically sustainable world.

Whether Republican or Democrat, the next administration is going to have to make sure to keep that in mind.

DUKE: DUMP ALEC!

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Written by Monica Embry, Greenpeace field organizer in Charlotte, NC.

Yesterday, members of Greenpeace, Energy Action Coalition, and other groups sent a message loud and clear to Duke Energy that we want them to dump ALEC (the American Legislative Exchange Council) before the end of the Democratic National Convention.

Group Duke Dump ALEC

ALEC is a rightwing bill mill group that connects corporations with our elected officials
to draft model legislation in support of corporate profits over the welfare of people and our planet. ALEC has written legislation including Arizona’s racist immigration law SB1070, Stand Your Ground Laws relating to the murder of Trayvon Martin in Florida, and many voter suppression laws such as Voter ID here in North Carolina. But that’s not all, ALEC also has an Energy, Environment and Agriculture Task Force which is working on legislation to stop regulation of coal fired power plants and to prevent laws from being passed that support renewable energy. Continue reading →

Greenpeace at the DNC: Day 2

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Greenpeace calls on Democrats to cut ties with Duke Energy

It’s a very different feeling today at the convention that it was yesterday. The Occupy rally rattled a few cages, the good people from Undocubus got out of jail today, and there was a great protest outside of a Southern Company sponsored event. I think that the delegates are getting the message.

To quote today’s Greenwire headline, “Democrats and the energy industry…it’s complicated.”

Well, it’s less complicated than they may think.

This is Duke Energy’s convention and CEO Jim Rogers is the star. Despite ringing this city in four coal and two nuclear power plants, they’ve still managed to escape a good deal of scrutiny. No doubt they are greenwashing every chance they get; including a full publication that given to every member of the press upon arriving at the convention.

That’s a full-on sham if you ask me. So, we’ve had to ramp up the pressure a bit and asked a couple of other folks. Chuck Schumer said they should drop ALEC. So did Dick Durbin. So did 150,000 people from around the country.

What else could we do? Activists in Ohio and right here in North Carolina delivered those petitions right to their doorstep. Then, along with our friends over at Energy Action Coalition, we walked on over and asked Mr. Rogers if he is ready to leave ALEC. He said he’s heard us loud and clear and are making a decision as we speak.

People want Duke Energy out of ALEC. Sounds like it’s time for that “leadership” that Duke speaks about so often.

Leaving ALEC is a first step. Then, maybe they’ll be freed up a bit from the corporate scandals, utility commission hearings and DNC planning to stop using blown-up mountains to power ancient coal plants. Live up to their own sustainability rhetoric – then I’m sure you’d both Duke and the Democrats would have a more inclusive, less confrontational convention space inside a clean, green, renewable Charlotte.

By being a leader, Duke Energy can make this convention less of a locked down security space and more of an opportunity for real change in America.

Coalition letter to DNC: Tell Duke Energy to Dump ALEC!

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Today, Greenpeace and the Coalition to March on Wall Street South sent a letter to Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, chair of the Democratic National Committee, highlighting the DNC’s connection to the American Legislative Exchange Council through Duke Energy.

The American Legislative Exchange Council, or ALEC, is a corporate bill mill that not only drafts state laws attacking clean energy and global warming laws, but circulates voter suppression laws that the Democratic party has called “unnecessary and suppressive.” These “Voter ID” laws require registered American voters to show government-issued identification at the polls, something millions of legitimate voters do not have. Voters who are disenfranchised by these laws disproportionately represent communities of color, senior citizens and college students. A recent report by the Philadelphia Inquirer found that of the 39 of the 62 “Voter ID” bills introduced in various states over the last two years were linked to ALEC. Continue reading →

What’s on ALEC’s polluter agenda tomorrow?

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Tomorrow, the American Legislative Exchange Council–known as ALEC–will host their 2012 Spring Task Force summit in Charlotte, NC. At tomorrow’s meeting, the corporate front group will round up its various committees and prepare to peddle new state-level legislation to attack clean energy laws, protect polluting industries, privatize education, and suppress voters, among other big business schemes.

Need a refresher on ALEC? It’s the group that brings state legislators to the table with representatives from major corporations in the sectors of energy, healthcare, tobacco, private prisons, and other groups to manipulate state politics to maximize their profits and limit their liabilities. These companies help craft template bills for state legislators to bring home and introduce in their respective statehouses.

Documents obtained and published by Common Cause now give us a roster of specific attendees at ALEC’s environmental meetings, a consortium of state legislators and a who’s who of the most offensive polluting political heavyweights including: Koch Industries, ExxonMobil, Duke Energy and Peabody.  Participating legislators know well they’re walking into a dirty party, sometimes using state taxpayer money to foot the bill.

The corporations that fund ALEC are well known for their political spending on both sides of the aisle. ALEC funders include Koch Industries, known for its coordinated political spending against President Obama, and Duke Energy, which is laying down a ten million dollar line of credit to host the Democratic National Convention in their hometown of Charlotte, NC. But these polluting companies are co-conspirators under the banner of ALEC, where partisan politics are set aside to focus on the mission of destroying environmental protections, clean energy competition and liability for crimes against both people and the ecosystems sustaining us.

So what exactly are ALEC and these oil, coal, chemical and public relations companies focusing on tomorrow? Continue reading →