Bringing The World Home To You

© 2024 WUNC North Carolina Public Radio
120 Friday Center Dr
Chapel Hill, NC 27517
919.445.9150 | 800.962.9862
91.5 Chapel Hill 88.9 Manteo 90.9 Rocky Mount 91.1 Welcome 91.9 Fayetteville 90.5 Buxton 94.1 Lumberton 99.9 Southern Pines 89.9 Chadbourn
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Duke Energy Wants Coal Ash Costs Passed To Consumers

The Dan River bank with residual dark grey coal ash.
Steven Alexander
/
USFWS
Duke Energy wants to pass the cost of coal ash cleanup on to consumers. Pictured here, the Dan River bank with residual dark grey coal ash after coal ash spill.

Duke Energy argued this week in hearings before the North Carolina Utilities Commission that the cost of cleaning up coal ash spills should be passed on to consumers. 

Duke Energy is asking for rate hikes that would also factor in the costs of distributing water bottles to customers who live near coal ash pits. WUNC daily news producer Will Michaels says Duke Energy is falling back on its enduring argument that consumers benefited from affordable coal electricity for decades, and that the rate increase is justified.

Michaels shares stories from Duke Energy consumers who are not convinced by the company’s rationale. 
 

Stay Connected
Laura Pellicer is a digital reporter with WUNC’s small but intrepid digital news team.
Longtime NPR correspondent Frank Stasio was named permanent host of The State of Things in June 2006. A native of Buffalo, Frank has been in radio since the age of 19. He began his public radio career at WOI in Ames, Iowa, where he was a magazine show anchor and the station's News Director.
Related Content