OPINION: Fight the Duke Energy Rate Hike While There’s Still Time

Summers in North Carolina are hot and sticky, making air conditioning an essential need, not a luxury. We depend on it to keep our homes, families and food cool. But as summer temperatures soar, our electricity provider, Duke Energy Carolinas, is pursuing a rate increase that would make air conditioning and other essentials far too expensive for far too many North Carolinians just like us.

We do our best to stretch our budget each month so we can pay for the things we need: food, rent and medicine. Even still, we’ve carried credit card debt, skipped vacations and deferred home repairs that we desperately need. For our entire adult lives, we have worked hard to provide for our families. We know how hard it is to afford a good life in North Carolina and keep up with today’s skyrocketing costs. Why is Duke Energy making a challenging situation worse?

Earlier this year, Duke asked the North Carolina Utilities Commission (NCUC) to approve yet another increase to our electricity rates, an outrageous request from a company that reported $4.9 billion in profits last year and whose president makes roughly $3,000 an hour. Meanwhile, we are already struggling to keep up with our electricity bills that can reach $300 per month in the summer.

Both of us are Duke Energy customers, working together in recent months with hundreds of other ratepayers to organize, submit public comments to the NCUC against the 18% increase, testify at hearings and even hold protests. We are both involved with WorkMoney, a group that helps people protect more of what they earn and lower the cost of living. It’s just wrong when hard-working people can’t afford their utilities and a good life in the richest nation on earth. But there’s some good news: Our pressure is working.

As a result of our collective efforts, Duke Energy revised its proposed rate increase down to 11.6%. This reduction proves that public pressure works. And it also proves that DEC’s original request was excessive. We agree with NC Attorney General Jeff Jackson when he said, “They’ve taken a step in the right direction by bringing the new rate down, but it is still too high.” That’s why the only acceptable rate increase in 2026 is zero.

This spring, we both joined NCUC hearings to share our perspectives, but the commission only allowed “experts” at the July 7 hearing instead of residential customers — the real experts on how unaffordable Duke Energy rates are already.

Utility rates in North Carolina are already far too high, having risen more than 23% on average over the past five years. Yet instead of focusing on affordability for customers, Duke Energy continues to spend money in ways that do little to lower our bills. It spends thousands of dollars on political influence campaigns, executive compensation and protecting its monopoly power while asking families to pay more and more.

Read more: Duke Energy’s Political Donations Pay Off Through Rate Hikes

It has even faced scrutiny for acting illegally in the past by improperly charging customers for fuel. As North Carolinians worked to recover from Hurricane Helene, Duke Energy continued raising rates. As customers, we shouldn’t be expected to bankroll corporate priorities that don’t make electricity more affordable or reliable.

If we don’t change course, utility rates in our state could climb by 60% over the next 15 years. That would force more seniors to go without air conditioning and more children to do their homework in the dark.

We cannot accept a future where utility bills consume more and more of household budgets while families are already stretched to the brink.

That is why we are urging the NCUC to reject Duke Energy’s rate increase. If you are a Duke Energy customer, please join us in submitting a public comment to the NCUC website. As a state still recovering from a hurricane, and with the ongoing unaffordability crisis already leaving too many families living paycheck to paycheck, North Carolina simply cannot absorb another blow. We work hard and we deserve better.

This summer, we are celebrating 250 years of the American Dream. However, the American Dream has never felt further out of reach than it does today. Out-of-control prices and corporations like Duke Energy that put their self-interest above our country and its people have made prosperity feel even more distant.

We are fighting this Duke Energy rate increase so that retirees, parents and working people in North Carolina can get the shot at the American Dream that we deserve. To members of the NCUC, how about you join us and help us protect the American Dream?

Lauren Carlin and Rick Martin, are residents of Hendersonville and Lawsonville, respectively, and Duke Energy customers.