Duke Energy told North Carolina lawmakers recently that removing all of the company's coal ash away from the state's rivers and lakes would take decades and cost up to $10 billion, with its electricity customers footing nearly all the bill.
No need to read that again, you read it correctly the first time. What should be entirely the responsibility of Duke energy is being made the problem of the consumer: making their customers dig into their pockets and footing the bill to clean up something that should never have happened in the first place. Duke will ask state regulators to raise the rates it charges customers. Raising the rates will not only make it the consumer’s problem, but will also add the pressure of ever rising inflation and pressure an already pressured population. Rising the cost of electricity will indirectly affect the cost of other good and services.
With an annual profit of almost 3 billion dollars, surely one has to ask the question. “Why are they trying to make their problem, our problem?”
A few more questions come to mind also. “How did Duke allow this to happen?” and if not for the spill in the Dan river which brought a lot of unwanted attention to their landfills, would they have been in this position trying to fix the problem now anyway.
In all fairness lets give credit where it is due. They are making an effort to clean up the mess that they have created. But that is as far as it goes. They have bent to public pressure to clean up their act, now we need to apply that pressure again to make sure that they do it with some integrity. And that is where you come in.
Lets send a message to Duke that we refuse to pay for their cleanup. They should take responsibility for what they have done, and for them to fix it with their own money. And not break the backs of the ordinary Americans who already suffer under the burden of a high cost of living.
Come on Duke, do the right thing! Pay to clean up your own mess.
