Get Cronyism Out of McCrory's Appointments

We, the undersigned, are outraged by McCrory's pro-industry, anti-environment appointments so far and do not trust him to make non-conflicted choices for the Utilities Commission.

Watchdog group NCWARN points out that North Carolina's Duke Energy "is now the largest electricity corporation in the United States." And they say "Shifting them away from fossil fuels could be the global game-changer humanity needs to avert runaway climate catastrophe." That's why it is working to change Duke Energy's "business model of building unneeded, expensive power plants and repeatedly raising our electricity rates."

And that's why it's essential to prevent conflicts of interest within the NC Utilities Commission.

Allowing Duke to raise consumer rates to fund nuclear and other polluting plants would be a horrible idea, according to a new study (Synapse Study) by energy economists. It "warns that North Carolina customers will see power bills skyrocket if legislators allow Duke Energy Progress to begin raising rates to pay for new nuclear reactors that would open in 2024 at best. The consumer alliance that fought off such legislation over the past two years said today that Duke’s business plan to build unneeded power plants could almost double rates by 2019 with another 50% increase over the following decade, severely impacting the state’s economy."

Duke rate hikes would also have a rippling effect on citizens, says Consumers Against Rate Hikes (CARH). Speaking for CARH, Carley Ruff said “The public gets cheated if [Duke Energy] can coax our elected officials into forcing those risks onto customers’ backs – with rate hikes year after year that would hit us all, and the economy, like a series of body blows: more disconnections, more jobs lost, more foreclosures, more stress on small business and local government budgets.”

Most important is that Duke's continued push for fossil fuel and nuclear energy is not necessary, according to a report Greenpeace released last year. EcoWatch says the report details how Duke Energy can save its customers over $100 billion by investing in renewable energy and energy efficiency.

But while Duke CEO "Jim Rogers claims that Duke is a green utility," says Greenpeace's senior analyst Mike Johnson, "the company continues to invest in dirty coal and deteriorating nuclear plants, all while raising rates for customers. His rhetoric doesn’t match the company’s reality...."

"It's one thing," says NPR Charlotte, "to make a former Duke executive your top economic development aide or secretary of commerce – as Governor McCrory has done -" but it's another thing to allow him to "re-shape NC utilities regulation."

In addition to concerns about McCrory's Duke colleague appointments, is his naming of John Skvarla as the new secretary of DENR (Dept of Environment and Natural Resources), who in turn appointed Mitch Gillespie as his assistant secretary. Skvaria, who apparently believes oil and gas are renewable sources, says he wants to make DENR more "customer-friendly" and is more interested in investing in cleaning up NC waters than promoting real renewable energy sources. And yet he and Gillespie are both very much pro-fracking, a process known to contaminate water sources. These are the people McCrory has directly and indirectly put in charge of protecting NC's environment. Go figure.

Now McCrory just wants us to trust him on his choices for NC judges and members of the NC Utilities Commission.

We request, Gov. McCrory, that you recuse yourself from NC Utilities Commission appointments. You've done far too much harm already.