Major utility Duke Energy sued after new evidence of deception

A small town in North Carolina is suing a major utility following evidence of the company’s decades-long climate deception.

Officials in Carrboro, North Carolina, are accusing Duke Energy of participating in a “far-reaching, decades-long campaign to deceive the public and decision-makers” about the dangers of burning fossil fuels and to increase reliance on coal and gas for electricity generation. The suit comes after the Energy and Policy Institute released a report detailing how, as early as the 1960s, precursors to Duke Energy were warned about how their pollution could fuel climate change but then proceeded to promote climate denial to the public. 

“It’s time for us to hold Duke Energy accountable for decades of deception, padding executives’ pockets while towns like ours worked to mitigate the harmful effects of climate change,” said Carrboro Mayor Pro Tem Danny Nowell.

According to the recent report, utilities that were later bought and absorbed by Duke Energy were informed in the 1960s of the role fossil fuels play in advancing climate change and went on to fund climate research through an industry association in the 70s and 80s. Despite developing a thorough understanding of the threats fossil fuels posed to the climate and fortifying its own infrastructure to withstand those threats, Duke Energy and its predecessor companies actively participated in a trade association that was a driving force in climate science denial campaigns, such as a 1991 marketing campaign seeking to “[r]eposition global warming as theory (not fact).” 

“Duke spent decades directing and supporting these trade organizations, and upon information and belief, Duke’s support was motivated by its desire to assist these trade organizations with their deceptive attempts to conceal from the public the true facts concerning the dangers of fossil fuel emissions,” the lawsuit reads. “Duke was aware that these trade organizations were engaged in a campaign of deception, assisted these organizations [to] perpetuate the deception, and richly benefited from the deception.”

This is the first case of its kind against an individual electric utility defendant. The town is asking for a jury to determine how much Duke Energy should pay in damages for their climate deception.