Coal Ash

Prior to becoming governor, AG Roy Cooper spoke strongly against consumers being made to pay coal ash cleanup costs, but under his governorship and two settlement agreements later, consumers appear to be on the hook for almost 90 percent of the $9 billion cleanup costs.

Several questions surround the coal-ash cleanup settlement agreement between Gov. Roy Cooper’s Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ), several “Community Groups,” Duke Energy, and not electricity consumers. The agreement…

Prior to April 2019, Duke Energy had agreed with the state Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) to close and excavate all but nine of its 31 coal-ash basins. DEQ had…