Don Nonini, Durham, Third Act North Carolina
On Tuesday, April 30, 2024, Third Actors in the Triangle gathered outside the Durham County Courthouse in downtown Durham along with their regional coalition partners to host a rally against Duke Energy’s Carbon Plan, and joined many others to testify before the NC Utilities Commission against Duke’s Plan.
The theme of the rally was “No Time for False Solutions” – no more claims from Duke about methane being “greener than coal,” no nonsense about the “need” to increase gas-generated energy for decades, no more pretensions that Duke cares about raising rates on poor folks, no more claims about the “unreliability” of solar and wind power, no more fantasies about “green hydrogen” saving us when the technology is unproven and won’t scale!
Third Act’s very own redoubtable Karen Bearden of 350 Triangle emceed the rally. The rally began with Karen starting us off with chants. She then led us through the failing Report Card put out by Fossil-FREE NC on Duke’s Carbon Plan and its reception by the NCUC: we shouted out its failing grades as Karen prompted us.
The Raging Grannies of NC Triangle came up and sang two original songs against Duke’s sneaky Carbon Plan in their inimitable rambunctious style – a model for us seniors! Then Caroline Armijo from Clean Water for North Carolina told us about Duke’s intentions to locate nuclear reactors at Belows Creek – another False Solution!
Dr. Crystal Cavalier of 7 Directions of Service then spoke about the Mountain Valley Pipeline and the Indigenous-led movement to stop it.
She was followed by Dr. Rania Masri of NC Environmental Justice Network, who reminded us that those in power like Duke and the NCUC have always tried to keep down people of color, especially poor folks in rural North Carolina, and we must all rise up with them to tell those in power, “No! – that’s not going to happen!” Our last speaker was Bobby Jones of Down East Coal Ash Environmental and Social Justice Coalition, from the frontlines of struggle against Duke’s coal ash poisoning, who brought home to us the suffering of those directly at the receiving end of Duke’s harm.
After the Rally, most of the more than 80 people who attended it went up to the NC Utility Commission’s hearing room. The NCUC and Duke expected us, yet again, to be docile participants in yet another of the NCUC’s farcical performances when they claim to “listen” respectfully to what we have to say — when in fact they and Duke Energy have consistently ignored residents’ warnings against the expansion of methane gas-generating facilities throughout the state. In fact, after the 2023 hearings which many of us testified against its Plan, Duke in its 2024 “Supplemental” Plan had the gall to claim that the load growth of the system had to increase eight times more than it claimed previously, just to keep up with “demand”! Translated: Huge rate increases, especially to those least able to afford them, to ensure Duke’s profits, during the 20-year massive build-out period for gas facilities that will destroy our climate.
So in line with our theme “No Time for False Solutions!” some of the audience made some righteously loud noise to let the three Commissioners present know that their hypocritical slavishness before Duke’s False Solutions was obvious to all, and then left the room in disgust. Others, including several Third Actors, stayed to testify over the next 3 hours against Duke’s Carbon Plan and the NCUC’s connivance with it and its threat to the future of the planet.