Duke Energy dispenses with civil discourse
Unfortunately, rude remarks and ad hominem attacks are not new to public discourse. They tend to emerge in the absence of facts, yet childish remarks and name-calling do nothing to advance the debate about our nation’s energy future.
Offshore wind can help repower the Southeast.
In an April 2 edition of ClimateWire (a publication of E&E Publishing), Duke Energy Corporation spokesman Tom Williams hurled an expletive at SACE executive director, Stephen Smith, over assertions about how utilities in our region seek to address climate change: “Most of the utilities in the Southeast tend to only want to address climate change through nuclear power,”Smith said.
“Those types of assertions rankle some people in the industry. Smith stands out as a rowdy nuisance to Tom Williams, a spokesman for Duke Energy Corp. ‘He is a lying son of a bitch,’ Williams said.” Download the original article from ClimateWire here.
Less than a week later, however, Duke Energy’s CEO confirms Dr. Smith’s point in the Charlotte Observer:
“But capping limits on carbon dioxide, which is emitted by Duke’s coal-fired plants, is expected to heavily cost utilities. Duke, meanwhile, says it needs to build more power plants to keep up with growing electricity demand.
“‘The only way we could do it is with nuclear,’ Rogers said at Monday’s Charlotte Energy Summit. ‘The higher the price (for carbon) goes, the stronger the case for nuclear.’”
The inflammatory quote about SACE’s executive director was pulled after a few hours, but it says something about the importance of our current energy debate when a small, conservation non-profit relies on sound analysis and solid data to advance an argument while a multi-million dollar utility must cast aspersions in order to defend a position.
For more than two decades, SACE has engaged both allies and critics in an effort to unleash the Southeast’s clean, renewable energy potential. Throughout this time, our organization has always accepted differences of opinion and entertained critical points of view. Our nation can’t achieve the energy solutions we need without debating issues rationally, and it is disappointing that a utility that millions in the Carolinas rely on for electricity has officially dispensed with civil discourse.
The Southern Alliance for Clean Energy knows that our region has plenty of renewable energy resources that will create new jobs and put our economy on the path to recovery. In fact, just this week, Secretary of Interior Ken Salazar said that the Atlantic Coast’s offshore wind potential could supply the equivalent of 3,000 medium-sized coal plants - enough to power much of the East Coast of the United States.
SACE hopes that Duke Energy will put name-calling aside and participate in a fruitful dialogue about our region’s renewable energy potential.
Tags: cap-and-trade, climate change, climate policy, Duke Energy, global warming, Nuclear, renewable energy
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It is beyond discouraging when big utilities react so strongly and so childishly to the efforts of those pursuing real solutions to climate change. We need to be able to work with the folks at Duke and have that critical dialogue so we can make the transition from dirty and archaic energy sources like coal and nuclear to clean, sustainable and just energy sources! Why is it that Steve Smith and SACE can see the opportunities and potential of uniquely southern energy sources (like our offshore wind potential), but Duke continues to deny and ignore those opportunities? Again, it’s beyond discouraging.
Comment by Sara T on April 13, 2009 8:51 am
I hope soon that Duke Energy will become an ally for progress instead of a hindrance. The times are changing. Immaturity on top of obfuscation cannot be tolerated.
Comment by Jason C on April 13, 2009 12:44 pm
Thank you for your courage in standing up to these dinosaurs. If people had any idea what is going on right now, and what is to come, I believe they would be outraged.
Unfortunately the deniers and destroyers run the show. They own most of our politicians and most of our regulatory agencies.
The lack of oversight is similar to what happened in financial markets — where the regulators and regulated were too cozy, and a revolving door often existed.
Coal-fired power plants are the largest single source of global warming. Let’s wake up before we reach a global temperature increase of 3 degrees C.
Comment by Nancy on April 24, 2009 1:38 pm
The same version of what is happening with Duke and Steve Smith is happening in many places in the U.S. It’s just more blatant in the South. Here in the West utilities like Xcel Energy PRETEND to be green, while pulling back on renewable energy contracts and putting up a new 750 MW coal plant.
Why are the utilities so backwards? I don’t know. Perhaps the same reason that the car industry gave us Hummers and Ford F150s when we needed hybrids.
Comment by Nancy on April 24, 2009 1:41 pm