Marketing & Communications

North Carolina Town Sues Utility Over Climate-Related Costs

In the latest in a growing wave of actions aiming to hold the fossil fuel industry liable for its role in accelerating climate change, Carrboro, NC is suing Duke Energy for its continued use of fossil fuels and attempting to gaslight the public about the reality of climate change.

Published 1 month ago | About a 6 minute read

Image: Town of Carrboro

The town of Carrboro, North Carolina is suing one of the US's largest electric utilities, Duke Energy, over its role in accelerating climate change.

Carrboro alleges that Duke — which operates six coal-fired power plants in North Carolina — knew about climate change for over 50 years but continued to fuel the issue with its coal and gas power plants. The lawsuit also says Duke participated in campaigns to confuse the public about whether climate change was real to avoid stricter regulations.

As Carrboro Mayor Barbara Foushee told The New York Times: “Historically underserved and marginalized communities are facing disproportionate impacts and health risks that are associated with climate change. This was not an easy decision to make, but I believe that we must be courageous as we call out these injustices and seek change and accountability.”

Duke Energy — the third-largest source of CO2 emissions in the US, according to an analysis from the University of Massachusetts Amherst — says it is reviewing the lawsuit.

Tidal wave of legal action for climate accountability

This is just the latest in a growing wave of actions across the US aiming to hold the fossil fuel industry liable for its role in accelerating climate change, and the associated impacts and costs many communities are now facing:

In May, Vermont lawmakers passed the landmark Climate Superfund Act — which seeks to allow the State to “bill” the largest fossil-fuel companies for their share of climate-change costs proportional to their emissions in the state from 1995-2004;
Attorneys in the landmark 2023 Held v. Montana suit — in which the judge ruled in favor of 16 young plaintiffs who accused state officials of violating their constitutional rights to a “clean and healthful environment” by promoting fossil fuels — are gearing up for a next phase in front of Montana’s Supreme Court;
Multnomah County, Oregon’s 2023 “heat dome” suit — which called out 17 fossil-fuel companies for their role in a deadly 2021 heat wave — was recently sent back to continue in Oregon Circuit Court.
This summer, California Attorney General Rob Bonta amended his 2023 lawsuit — which calls out the American Petroleum Institute and the world’s five largest fossil-fuel companies for deceiving the public for decades regarding the reality of climate change and its connection to the combustion of fossil fuels, resulting in climate-related harms in California — which includes additional examples of recent false advertising and greenwashing by the oil companies;
And similar to the young Montanans, eight Alaska youth recently sued their state government over a controversial natural-gas pipeline project, saying that further fossil-fuel development in the state — the fastest-warming state in the US — threatens their constitutional right to a livable climate.

Now, in a complaint filed Wednesday in a North Carolina state court, the town of Carrboro is seeking compensation for current and future losses due to climate-related weather changes.

"Our community floods fairly regularly as a result of the supercharged storms that are dumping large amounts of precipitation in short periods of time," Foushee told NPR’s “All Things Considered.”

The complaint also cites a range of costs due to hotter temperatures — including higher electricity bills due to the need for more air conditioning, and the need for more road maintenance and other infrastructure costs.

The lawsuit does not request a specific dollar amount; but as Vermont is now doing, Carrboro has started tallying climate-related costs — which Foushee says could amount to $60 million in damages in the coming years.

Fossil-fueled deception

The fossil fuel industry’s decades-long campaign to gaslight the US public by distorting the realities and risks of climate change is not news — various documents leaked since the early 1990s have exposed the extent of the efforts. But the Carrboro complaint alleges that Duke Energy learned about the effects of climate change over 50 years ago, at a utility trade group meeting in 1968.

"At that meeting, there was discussion about carbon dioxide emissions and how they were harming the planet and the need to potentially take action," Howard Crystal — an attorney with the Center for Biological Diversity (CBD) who consulted on the case — told NPR.

Instead of working to reduce its climate-warming emissions, the suit claims Duke worked with industry peers to challenge the idea of climate change. The lawsuit cites newspaper ads from a group called the Information Council for the Environment — a short-lived but potent front group for US coal companies formed in 1991 with the express purpose of deceiving the public about climate science. One full-page ad that ran in a Bowling Green, Kentucky newspaper in 1991 showed a sweating man carrying a large bag of money and asked, "How much are you willing to pay to solve a problem that may not exist?" It then highlighted information that challenged climate science to confuse the public and forestall action.

"If we'd invested early and substantially in the transition away from fossil fuels, we wouldn't be dealing with the incredible costs we're bearing constantly to address the climate disasters that are hitting us over and over again," Crystal says.

These days, Duke Energy — which serves 8.4 million customers across Florida, Kentucky, Indiana, North Carolina, Ohio and South Carolina — says it is "executing an ambitious clean energy transition" and has a goal of "net-zero carbon emissions from electricity generation by 2050." But recent estimates put the percentage of renewables in Duke’s energy mix at a mere 5 percent; and the company recently announced plans to extend the life of its largest coal-fired power plant for three years, to 2038 — citing a projected increase in electricity demand to power the explosive growth in AI.

Meanwhile, the team behind the Carrboro suit says correcting public perception is part of the goal. Mayor Foushee says beyond a monetary settlement, it's important to get acknowledgement that Duke Energy's climate pollution is harming her town.

"Somebody has to speak truth to power about this issue with Duke Energy Corporation, and so it is us," Foushee says.

According to the CBD, Carrboro has been working to fight climate chaos and environmental injustice for decades by developing community-based solar programs, implementing climate-resilience measures for low-income residents and small businesses, and funding nature-based solutions for stormwater management.

“This lawsuit represents an incredible opportunity to put an end to corporate deception and enter a new era for Carrboro,” said Mayor Pro Tem Danny Nowell. “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. This suit will allow the Town of Carrboro to invest new resources into building a stronger, more climate-resilient community — using the damages justly due to our residents to reimagine the ways we prepare for our climate reality.”