NC attorney general gives reasons why Duke customers shouldn't pay for coal ash cleanup

North Carolina Attorney General Josh Stein on Friday filed formal appeals to the N.C. Supreme Court seeking to overturn a state regulator’s decision allowing Duke Energy to bill customers in Charlotte and elsewhere for its coal ash cleanup costs.

Last year, the North Carolina Utilities Commission authorized the Charlotte-based company to charge state customers to recover hundreds of millions of dollars Duke has spent on closing ash-storage sites around the state.

In his appeal, Stein, a Democrat, argued that Duke continued to store the ash in unlined pits across the state even after learning the practice would pollute groundwater. Some of those sites are in the Charlotte area, such as the Allen Steam Station on Lake Wylie and the Marshall Steam Station on Lake Norman.

“Those actions by Duke have caused massive pollution — pollution that is still being cleaned up today,” Friday’s filing said. “These appeals ask whether consumers should be compelled to pay to clean up Duke’s mismanagement of its coal ash.”

Read more: https://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/business/article229720699.html