Karma's Most Wanted: Duke Energy

You're Paying for Their Data Centers, Their Coal Ash, Their CEO's $13.6 Million, and They Just Want You to Know They're Very Committed to Reliability

There's a version of this story where a giant utility company needs more money to keep the lights on. Where infrastructure costs are just infrastructure costs. Where a rate increase is a rate increase, and the whole thing is a neutral, technical, boring process that reasonable people administrate in good faith.

That is a fucking lie.

THE NUMBERS FIRST, BECAUSE WHAT THE FUCK?

Duke Energy, the monopoly power company serving most of North Carolina. posted $4.9 billion in profit in 2025, up $400 million from the year before. Revenue hit $32.2 billion. In the first quarter of 2026 alone, they reported another $1.58 billion in profit.

The same week those numbers were being reported, Duke was already mid-process asking state regulators to approve a rate hike that would hit residential customers 14 to 18 percent over the next two years.

Let's all dwell on that for a moment: Record profits. Simultaneous rate hike request. These two facts are not in tension in Duke's world. They are the business model. The customers are the host, Duke Energy is the parasite.

If approved, a typical residential customer in the Duke Energy Carolinas region will see their monthly bill climb from $144.98 to around $168.54 by 2028. Duke Energy Progress customers, eastern NC and the Asheville area, face going from $163.84 to $193.54. That's nearly $30 more a month for households that don't have $30 to spare.

And this isn't the beginning. Rate changes alone added about $50 to the average monthly bill between 2020 and 2025, a jump of nearly 45%. A customer who used the exact same amount of electricity every month is paying 45% more today than five years ago. From 2021 to 2025, Duke kept between 14.9% and 17.4% of all revenue collected from customers as profit, every single year.

Under the current proposal, typical residential bills for Duke Energy Progress customers would increase about 18%, while Carolinas customers would see about 16%. By 2029, if current plans hold, one analysis projects a 37% cumulative increase from where bills stood in 2023.

"Even a customer who used exactly the same amount of electricity every month would be paying 45% more today than in 2020." – Energy and Policy Institute

WHO IS THIS RATE HIKE ACTUALLY FOR?

Duke will tell you the rate hike is about grid upgrades, reliability, storm recovery, and the clean energy transition. Some of that is real. Grids cost money to maintain. Storms are getting worse.

But here's where the Capitalist bullshit begins:

Duke predicts data centers will drive 75% of economic development energy demand in North Carolina by 2030. They have 6 gigawatts of data center demand in their pipeline in the Carolinas right now. Six gigawatts. That's enough electricity for between 3 and 6 million homes. In just the last three months before this filing, Duke signed contracts for another 1.5 gigawatts of new data center demand.

Building enough generation and grid infrastructure to serve that demand is expensive. And under the current regulatory structure in North Carolina, those costs get spread across every customer on the system, meaning you and your neighbor are subsidizing the electricity bills of Microsoft, Meta, and Amazon. And western North Carolina has not even recovered from Hurricane Helene yet.

Person County residents figured this out. Ahead of a public hearing in Roxboro, residents and advocates gathered outside the courthouse. One woman who'd lived there for 23 years put it plainly: the data center coming to her county is so large the current grid can't handle it, and Duke will pass those costs to consumers.

State Senator Jonah Garson put a number on it: for many North Carolinians, especially those on fixed incomes, this rate hike means choosing between keeping the power on and paying for medicine or food.

Duke's public response? Data centers currently represent less than 1% of peak energy use, so they're not a major factor in this request. They don't mention that they've already signed contracts for 1.5 gigawatts of new data center demand in the past three months, and they "don't anticipate any of those backing out."

So: not technically a current problem. Just a guaranteed future one that you're being asked to pre-finance now.

THE PART THAT SHOULD MAKE YOU ACTUALLY ANGRY

Duke Energy owns three data centers of its own. In Charlotte, in Garner, and in Huntersville at the McGuire nuclear plant. Duke received tax breaks on all three.

Tax exemptions for data centers keep up to $57 million a year out of state and local government coffers. Governor Josh Stein has called on the legislature to reconsider those exemptions. Seven Democratic lawmakers introduced a bill to repeal the sales tax exemptions for data centers. It faces a Republican majority that has shown no interest in passing it.

So the full picture: Duke builds data centers. The state gives Duke tax breaks on those data centers. Duke asks you to subsidize the grid upgrades needed to serve data centers. Your legislators, many of whom have accepted Duke campaign contributions, vote accordingly, and not according to you. Citizens United was truly the death knell of the United States.

"It is infuriating, but not surprising, that Duke Energy both benefits from getting sales and usage tax incentives. We're giving Duke Energy money to build something and then we're paying Duke Energy higher utility rates. It is absolutely absurd." – Rani Masri, NC Environmental Justice Network

THE COAL ASH CHAPTER (OH, AN ACTUAL CRIMINAL CONVICTION)

Duke Energy spent decades storing toxic coal ash in unlined pits near waterways across North Carolina. Coal ash contains arsenic, lead, mercury, and chromium. Exposure raises the risk of cancer, heart disease, and stroke, and can cause permanent brain damage in children.

On February 2, 2014, a pipe broke at Duke's Dan River plant in Eden and dumped 39,000 tons of coal ash into the Dan River, coating 70 miles of riverbed in gray sludge. Federal prosecutors investigated. What they found went well beyond Eden.

In 2015, three Duke Energy subsidiaries pleaded guilty to nine criminal violations of the Clean Water Act and paid $102 million in fines and restitution, the largest federal criminal fine in North Carolina history at the time. The company was placed on five years of federal probation. A court-appointed monitor oversaw their coal ash compliance.

The charges covered five plants. Federal prosecutors described the crimes as the result of "repeated failures" and "criminal negligence." Duke's lawyer stood in federal court and said the words "Guilty, your honor" nine times.

That was a decade ago. The cleanup is still ongoing. North Carolina's coal ash contains more than 130 million cubic yards of toxic material, the equivalent of a football field piled more than 11 miles high. Earthjustice describes it as the largest coal ash cleanup in the nation.

The projected total cleanup cost: approximately $4 billion over the next decade. Ratepayers are expected to cover around $3 billion of that. Duke's shareholders are covering the rest. The North Carolina Utilities Commission initially granted Duke's request that customers bear all cleanup costs. The Attorney General had to sue to change that.

Duke also tried, and this is not a typo, to leave coal ash permanently in unlined pits at six North Carolina sites while those pits were actively leaking toxic contaminants into groundwater. The Southern Environmental Law Center sued. Duke eventually agreed to excavate.

Duke built the mess over decades. Duke got convicted for it. Duke's customers are paying to clean it up.

Duke Energy pleaded guilty to nine federal crimes. They were fined $102 million. That fine amounts to roughly 2% of one year's profit.

THE REVOLVING DOOR

None of this happens without political architecture. Here is how it works in North Carolina.

Paul Newton was the president of Duke Energy North Carolina until 2015. He then became a Republican state senator. In March 2025, he introduced Senate Bill 261, which would allow Duke Energy to charge customers for power plants before they're even built, shift more fuel costs onto residential customers rather than industrial ones, and eliminate North Carolina's legally mandated 2030 carbon reduction targets.

Newton resigned from the Senate shortly after introducing the bill, to take a job at UNC Chapel Hill. But the bill didn't die with his departure. Senate leadership gut-amended an unrelated flood relief bill, dropped Newton's provisions in, renamed it the "Power Bill Reduction Act," and passed it.

"By overriding the governor's veto, they handed Duke Energy a blank check, one that North Carolinians will be forced to pay. This decision has nothing to do with keeping the lights on, and everything to do with padding the pockets of corporate polluters." -- Dan Crawford, NC League of Conservation Voters

Governor Stein vetoed it. The Republican legislature overrode the veto in July 2025, with help from Charlotte-area Democrats Carla Cunningham and Nasif Majeed, both of whom have received thousands of dollars in Duke Energy PAC contributions. Once again, thank you Citizens United.

A study from NC State University found that removing the 2030 interim carbon target "could cost ratepayers up to $23 billion in added fuel expenses through 2050." The legislature passed it anyway.

Duke Energy has contributed over $2.5 million to North Carolina politics over the past decade. About 60% of current state lawmakers have accepted Duke campaign contributions. Nearly a quarter have accepted $10,000 or more over their careers.

The three biggest individual recipients currently serving in the legislature: Senate President Pro Tem Phil Berger, who received $107,000 from Duke's PAC since 2000; Senate leader Ralph Hise, who took $46,000 since 2010; and House Speaker Destin Hall, who has received over $31,000 since 2016. These are the people who vote on Duke's regulatory environment.

In a particularly clean example of how the system works: Duke contributed $100,000 to the North Carolina Republican Party Building Fund, a mechanism that circumvents the rule against companies contributing directly to political parties.

State regulators previously caught Duke trying to charge $2.8 million in advertising, lobbying, and political contributions directly to ratepayers in a single rate case. Duke accepted the accounting as improper. A bill to permanently prohibit this, the NC Consumer Protection Act, died in committee earlier this year when Republican leadership refused to advance it. The bill that would have stopped utilities from passing political spending costs to customers was killed by politicians funded by utilities. Ain't that a bitch.

The North Carolina Utilities Commission, the five-member body that will decide this rate case, was reconfigured by a 2024 law. Its current chairman, William Brawley, was appointed effective July 31, 2025. In April 2026, Brawley issued a unilateral order pausing solar projects, with no public hearing, no notice to parties, no input from stakeholders. Clean energy groups sued, arguing he lacked the authority. The order appeared out of nowhere. That is who is deciding your utility rates.

THE CEO MADE $13.6 MILLION WHILE YOU DEBATED YOUR BILL

Harry Sideris became Duke Energy's CEO on April 1, 2025. For approximately nine months of that year, he made $13.6 million in total compensation. His base salary is $1.3 million. His potential annual bonus is 150% of that salary. His long-term stock incentives can reach 750% of his base salary.

That last number is important. His compensation is structured to reward him for exactly what drives rate increases: building infrastructure, growing earnings, and expanding the company's rate base. The more Duke invests -- in gas plants, data center infrastructure, grid upgrades -- the more it can charge customers, the higher its earnings, and the more executives make. The incentive structure is self-reinforcing.

His predecessor, Lynn Good, made $21 million in her final year as CEO.

Duke paid its CEO $13.6 million. They are simultaneously asking a woman in Roxboro who's been on fixed income for a decade to pay $30 more a month for electricity.

$13.6 million CEO pay. $4.9 billion annual profit. 45% rate increase since 2020. Soaring disconnections. These are not contradictions. They are features.

THE DISCONNECTION NUMBER THEY DON'T LEAD WITH

While Duke was posting record profits and requesting higher investor returns, disconnection rates, shutoffs per 1,000 customers, were rising sharply across both Duke Energy Carolinas and Duke Energy Progress.

After Hurricane Helene in September 2024, disconnections briefly dropped as affected residents qualified for winter protections. Then the protection period ended. The disconnection rate shot past where it had been before the storm.

Between January and August 2025, residential electricity prices nationwide jumped 10.5%, one of the fastest increases in a decade. Duke's current approved return on equity is already above the national average. They're now asking to raise it to 10.95%.

"Bills are projected to skyrocket and emissions at this point are projected to increase. I don't think we're hitting either of the metrics that we would consider measures of success for a utility when it comes to modernizing our electric system." -- Will Scott, NC policy director, Environmental Defense Fund

North Carolina, unlike many states, does not completely prohibit disconnections in winter or summer. There are some protections for elderly and disabled customers certified by social services agencies, but the bar to qualify is high, the certification process is bureaucratic, and the protection window is narrow. When it ends, Duke resumes shutoffs.

Thousands of customers have signed petitions calling for an independent audit of Duke Energy. The NCUC's response: Duke's rates are already subject to investigation when the company requests rate changes. The process that produced this situation is the process being offered as the solution to this situation.

WHAT YOU CAN DO RIGHT NOW

There is a public hearing on this rate hike in Durham, North Carolina on June 3, 2026, this Tuesday. It was rescheduled from May 12. That's how these things tend to work: public participation gets quietly shuffled around until it doesn't matter. Show up if you can.

Written comments can be submitted to the North Carolina Utilities Commission at Docket No. E-7, Sub 1329. The Commission will make its final decision later this year.

The fight here isn't really about whether Duke needs to invest in the grid. It probably does. The fight is about who pays, who benefits, who wrote the laws that govern the process, who funds the politicians who write those laws, who runs the regulatory body that approves the rates, and whether a company posting $4.9 billion in annual profit, run by executives earning eight figures, should be allowed to socialize its costs while privatizing its gains.

This is yet another story of profits being privatized for the elites, and socialized for the masses. We already have socialism, but the average North Carolinian does not benefit from it, only the executive ghouls and stakeholders.

That's the version of this story that's true.