Administrative Watch: Consumers Hit by Coal Ash Bill

The NC Utilities Commission (NCUC) says electric customers, not utility stockholders, will have to pay most of what Duke Energy has spent so far to clean up coal ash problems. More expense is almost sure to come. Ratepayers are not happy.

In its decision on Duke Energy Progress’s rate hike request, the NCUC said Duke could recover from ratepayers most of the roughly $240 million it said it has already spent on cleaning up coal ash problems at its facilities. The NCUC trimmed about $9 million off the initial request. It also told told Duke that they would have to come back in future years to ask for additional money, instead of getting the up-front guarantee of recovery of future costs that Duke requested.

Clean energy and consumer advocates panned the outcome as giving Duke too much at the expense of the public. Southern Environmental Law Center attorney Gudrun Thompson said, “We are disappointed that the commission did not stand up for customers – especially those struggling to pay their bills. While Duke is enjoying record profits, the commission undercut customers’ ability to reduce their energy use and lower their bills with cost-effective energy efficiency.”

Two dissenters from the NCUC’s majority order would have docked Duke for a much higher share of the cleanup expenses. That would have been more in line with citizen advocates’ position that the corporate stockholders, not the customers, should bear the responsibility for Duke’s management decisions that led to enormous and poorly contained stockpiles of coal ash.

The full NCUC decision and dissents can be reviewed here.

Up next, offshore drilling opponents rallied to #ProtectOurCoast >>