Christine Ho, christine.ho@sierraclub.org
Charlotte, N.C. — In an indication of how major utilities may respond to election results, the Chief Financial Officer of Duke Energy announced that in light of Donald Trump’s recent election win and the energy plans outlined in Project 2025, the utility is considering ramping up coal use in its operations.
In Duke Energy’s own 2023 Integrated Resource Plan for North and South Carolina, the utility announced its intentions to “ensure the clean energy transition happens at the lowest cost to customers, with equal or greater reliability.” In its 2021 Indiana Integrated Resource Plan, Duke stated that the utility “remains committed to maintaining reliability and affordability while transitioning to an increasingly diverse and environmentally sustainable mix of natural gas, wind, solar, hydroelectric, and energy storage resources.”
This announcement is a complete reversal of Duke Energy’s promise to its ratepayers to provide clean, affordable, and reliable energy, and it is an indication of where the utility will move under another Trump administration: doubling down on fossil fuels, running some coal plants at exorbitant costs to ratepayers, while slashing planned renewable energy investments. In the Sierra Club’s 2024 Dirty Truth Report, Duke Energy earned a ‘D’ for its slow progress to embrace clean energy, retire coal, and stop the rush to gas.
In response, Sierra Club Executive Director Ben Jealous issued the following statement:
“Just days after the election, we are already seeing big polluters emboldened by Donald Trump’s agenda to increase costly fossil fuel use and devastate our public health and our environment. Ramping up coal use would mean higher monthly costs for ratepayers, more deadly pollution in our communities, and more climate chaos, all for the sake of boosting profits for coal executives.
“In the face of big polluters doubling down on their dirty agendas, the Sierra Club will continue to do what we have been doing for decades: we will fight back. During Trump’s first term, the Sierra Club fought relentlessly to defeat his administration’s attacks on jobs, climate progress, and clean air and water, and we were successful. In fact, despite Trump’s efforts to prop up the polluters, we retired coal plants at an even faster pace under Trump than under the Obama administration. Now we are ready to fight again, in every possible forum, to challenge big polluters’ dangerous proposals and keep the pressure on the energy industry to continue the transition to a healthier and more affordable clean energy future.”
About the Sierra Club
The Sierra Club is America’s largest and most influential grassroots environmental organization, with millions of members and supporters. In addition to protecting every person's right to get outdoors and access the healing power of nature, the Sierra Club works to promote clean energy, safeguard the health of our communities, protect wildlife, and preserve our remaining wild places through grassroots activism, public education, lobbying, and legal action. For more information, visit www.sierraclub.org.