Executive Watch: Stein Challenges Coal Ash Charges
North Carolina Attorney General Josh Stein will fight Duke Energy’s coal ash rate hike in court.
Stein has appealed to the state Supreme Court in an attempt to overturn Duke’s large electric rate hike, which was based primarily on its coal ash waste cleanup costs. In its decision on Duke’s requested rate hike, announced earlier this month, the North Carolina Utilities Commission (NCUC) allowed Duke to recover more than $200 million in cleanup costs it has already spent.
Stein agreed with conservation and consumer advocates who say that Duke should not be allowed to pass on to consumers the lion’s share of these costs, which resulted from a combination of poor management decisions, assessed federal environmental crimes, and what even the NCUC termed “pervasive shortcomings” in handling coal ash.
In its court filing, Stein’s office said the NCUC should not have passed these costs on to ratepaying electric customers because of “the greater weight of evidence which demonstrated that Duke knew of the risks of storing coal ash in unlined surface impoundments and failed to take timely and appropriate action to address those risks.”
In a public statement, Stein said, “I am appealing the Duke rate case because I don’t believe [electric customers] should be forced to pay for Duke’s coal ash mismanagement. Duke Energy knew coal ash was toxic for years and failed to act responsibly. It’s wrong to put all the costs of cleaning it up on the people of North Carolina.”
