At a public hearing Wednesday at the Durham County Courthouse, about a dozen people offered feedback to the North Carolina Utilities Commission on Duke Energy's latest proposed plan to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050.
Overall, people expressed concern about delaying the retirement of some coal plants and building new natural gas plants. People also voiced worries about air pollution caused by the continued use of fossil fuels.
"In order to reduce air pollution and its harms on our communities, and also to reduce the impact on climate, I urge you to require Duke (Energy) to turn much harder toward renewable energy," Perri Morgan, a physician assistant at Duke Health, said to commissioners. "We should not build new gas plants. They will be obsolete nearly as soon as they are built. They will raise costs for consumers and have negative impacts on health."
In 2021, a bipartisan state law required Duke Energy to reduce its carbon emissions by 70% by 2030, and achieve carbon neutrality by 2050.
However, a new state law passed last year now eliminates that 2030 goal. Additionally, last year saw the federal elimination of a wide range of clean energy tax incentives. As the North Carolina Sustainable Energy Association points out, these "policy changes enacted in 2025 will factor heavily into what North Carolina’s energy mix looks like from 2026 onward."
The latest proposal from Duke Energy includes delaying the retirement of some coal plants, while also adding new nuclear power generation, natural gas, and battery storage. Duke also wants to add more solar, but not as much as previously suggested.
Robert Rodriguez, who identified himself as a concerned citizen, advocated for using more solar energy than Duke is proposing.
"We can do better. We need to," said Rodriguez.
Another speaker, Emilia Covington of Raleigh, called the proposed plan "a bad investment."
"Instead of embracing cleaner, cheaper energy, like solar and wind, Duke plans to double down on costly and outdated fossil fuels," said Covington. "If this plan is approved, I worry that household customers doing what we can to cut costs and conserve energy will be stuck paying the bill for energy intensive data centers and gas plants."
Electricity demand in North Carolina, and across the nation and world, is surging. The population in North Carolina continues to grow quickly, and businesses and manufacturing facilities are also expanding. Most notably, power-hungry data centers are planned across the state.
Duke Energy spokesperson Bill Norton explains it will take a balance of energy resources to meet this unprecedented high demand.
"We're trying to come up with a plan that delivers the reliability our customers demand, at the lowest possible cost while being increasingly clean and accommodating growth," Norton said. "You hear a lot of advocates (say) 'we need more renewables' (or) 'we need more batteries.' We agree, but we need natural gas and we need nuclear too. We need all of it."
More public hearings are scheduled for next month, including:
- Wilmington on Wednesday, March 4 at New Hanover County Courthouse at 7 p.m.
- Online via Webex on Monday, March 16 at 6:30 p.m. (People who wish to testify must register in advance of the hearing, no later than 5 p.m. on March 9. Only the first 20 people who register will be allowed to testify.)
- Asheville on Tuesday, March 17 at Buncombe County Courthouse at 7 p.m.
- Charlotte on Wednesday, March 18 at the Mecklenburg County Courthouse at 7 p.m.
Carbon Plan proceedings will continue throughout the year, including an evidentiary hearing in June. A final plan is expected by the end of the calendar year.
