Consumers’ Research has launched a new campaign against Duke Energy for its ESG (environmental, social, and governance) policies, which have resulted in higher energy prices, amid the already high inflation rate.

Duke Energy, in pursuit of “net-zero emissions” goals, has shifted away from affordable and reliable sources of energy towards more expensive and less reliable wind and solar. This has led the company to raise rates and warn customers of future increases.

Duke Energy has chosen ESG to the detriment of its customers, rather than pursue cheaper energy sources to ease costs which have already skyrocketed as a result President Joe Biden’s and Democrats’ efforts to end American energy independence. Duke Energy’s executives are rewarded for making energy prices higher for their customers.

Consumers’ Research has stepped in to protect Duke Energy’s customers. They have launched an advertising campaign that will hold Duke Energy accountable. Will Hild, Consumers’ Research’s executive director, also wrote a letter to the North Carolina Utilities Commission urging them to take action and protect Duke Energy’s customers.

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The letter states that Duke Energy holds a monopoly over the energy market in North Carolina. The letter notes that “the state’s consumers of energy have no recourse in order to avoid the rate hikes Duke demands”, and that “Duke has set itself up to increase North Carolina electricity bills by almost 20% over the next 3 years.” These rate increases include compensation for failed projects worth billions of dollars, subsidies for “pilot programs” that discriminate North Carolinians against electric vehicle owners and an ever expanding diversity, equity and inclusion department and program that does nothing to provide reliable service to customers, Hild explains.

Hild’s letter emphasizes that Duke brags about their racial, gender, and age quotas, which they set for their employees, to “increase the diversity of all their workforce segments”, by hiring people based on gender and skin tone.

The letter states that Duke’s obsession to hire employees based on race or gender, as well as setting specific hiring quotas, is an affront to civil rights in America, and a distraction to their essential job of maintaining the grid. It will also likely lead to litigation, especially given the recent Supreme Court ruling concerning racial bias.

Hild points to the fact that Duke Energy, in addition to their hiring quotas, sponsored a Youth Pride Carnival 2022 that included a King and Queen Drag Show that, “according the the event page was intended for as young as twelve-year-old children.”

Hild says that if Duke Energy executives wish to push transgender ideologies on 6th graders on their own dime and time, they can do so. “Consumers shouldn’t be forced to subsidise the targeting of children with transgender education.”

The letter from Hild states that on the “environmental side” of ESG that “perhaps the worst abuse of Duke’s Resources has been their political support of anti-consumer “net-zero” policies.” This amounts to a “clear conflicts of interest” when the company “extends company resources to support the enactment policies that increase costs for Duke while they are asking those costs to pass on to their customer in the form rate increases.”

Hild says that Duke has acknowledged this in their applications for rate increases to the commission. They note that “the scale and complexity of the clean energy transition imposes an obligation on The Company” that justifies future massive rate increases. Maybe this is why Duke CEO Lynn Good referred to net zero as Duke’s “entire business plan.” ‘”

Consumers’ Research cautions against blaming rate increases on these laws. Duke openly boasts of lobbying for legislation that it uses to increase rates. The letter describes this as a “charade” in which Duke customers are forced to subsidise the passage of laws that will increase costs for their families. Hild says that this is “disgusting and cruel”. While Duke’s customers face greater financial hardships, the CEO of the company has seen her compensation rise “nearly half from $14.5 to $21.3 millions.”

As the oldest consumer protection group in the country, Consumers’ Research’s mission is to educate and empower consumers by bringing their voices into the marketplace. We are urging the commission, for this very reason, to stop Duke Energy’s abuse of North Carolina customers,” Hild says. Duke’s operations are a laundry-list of costly distractions and boondoggles. Hild says that when they’re not pushing rate increases of double digits on customers, they’re busy wasting time and money by pushing political initiatives.

Consumers’ Research also launched a website called RebukeDuke.com, which criticizes Duke Energy’s actions as part its latest campaign. Consumers’ Research is also placing two mobile billboards in the streets this week. One outside the company headquarters in Charlotte, and the other near a California hotel where a Duke Energy Board member will be speaking about the “impact ESG on business”