Duke rate hike proposal is insulting
To the Editor:
Duke Energy’s request to the Republican-controlled N.C. Utilities Commission (The Smoky Mountain News, April 22) will increase everyone’s monthly power bills by an average of $28 per 1,000 kilowatt hours, a 15% hike. Next year, an average of $6.59 will be added to that. Over the first two years, our higher electricity bills would give Duke about $728.6 million.
In 2025 alone, Duke raked in $4.9 billion in profits. This includes income from water-, air- and land-polluting and 24/7 noisemaking data centers, so it has a stake in pushing for more of them. Its first quarter 2026 profit was $1.58 billion, so its 2026 profit might exceed last year’s. Thanks to Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill, Duke Energy paid zero federal income tax in 2025.
How much did you pay, readers?
In 2025, Duke CEO Henry Sideris got approximately $14 million in salary and bonuses. Other top Duke employees do very well, too. They enjoy multi-million dollar incomes while a majority of our citizens live paycheck to paycheck, many working two or three jobs.
Why are we, North Carolina homeowners, renters, nursing business-owners, local governments, schools and other organizations, in danger of shelling out more of our hard-earned money to Duke Energy? As always, follow the money on a dizzying revolving door as it travels from Duke Energy to N.C. Senate and House and the N.C. Utilities Commission.
Related Items
Be purposeful and feed the good wolf
Walters hydro plant turns 100: Dam, powerhouse withstood Helene’s onslaught
Duke should find new Needmore route
The grift goes on for Donny & Co.
These state senators and representatives are top recipients of Duke Power-affiliated PAC donations:
• Phil Berger (R), state senator and former Senate leader, got $107,000 since 2000 from Duke’s Political Action Committee. Duke is his third-biggest donor after two big Republican groups.
• Sen. Ralph Hise (R), who took over leadership from Berger, has taken $46,000 from Duke’s PAC since 2010.
• Republican House Speaker Destin Hall (R) has taken over $31,000 since 2016. Duke’s PAC is his third-biggest funder.
In 2015 Paul Newton (R) left as head of Duke Energy in North Carolina to run for state senate in 2016. He won. He got a bill passed to let Duke charge us customers for its unfinished energy plants and to cancel its commitment to reduce fossil fuels by 2030. With a supermajority, Republicans overrode the governor’s veto.
Newton also got Republican Donald Van der Vaart (R) appointed head of the N.C. Utilities Commission. He is an ex-Shell Oil executive. Van der Vaart denies the truth our farmers see daily: our climate is changing for the worse. Van der Vaart pushes coal-fired plants over solar and wind, although clean energy is less expensive to build and to maintain.
How does all this affect us voters, who are not billionaires? General Assembly Republicans act in Duke’s interest and the interests of mega-data centers and the fossil fuel industry, not ours.
Fortunately, some Republican voters have lately seen what the men they voted for are doing to them. State Sen. Berger lost the March 3 Republican primary for pushing a casino in his district against the wishes of his Republican constituents. Mark Pless, the state representative from here in WNC, lost his primary for ignoring his constituents’ wishes.
Gov. Josh Stein’s (D) response to Duke and General Assembly Republicans has exposed their contempt for North Carolina citizens: “On top of a proposed 15% rate hike, Duke Energy is now asking North Carolinians to foot the bill for an additional $800 million in increased fuel costs. I vetoed Senate Bill 266 for exactly this reason: because it would further expose North Carolina ratepayers to volatile fuel markets and shift the cost of electricity from large industrial users onto the backs of regular people, making your utility bills more expensive. Republican legislators knew this, but still left North Carolinians holding the bag. The Utilities Commission should step in to secure an affordable energy future for North Carolinians. We must do everything we can to make life more affordable for families, not more expensive.”
In November 2024, General Assembly Republicans lost their supermajority. This coming November, perhaps more voters, regardless of party affiliation, will act in their own and their families’ interests.
Mary Jane Curry,
Haywood County
