When Gov. Josh Stein created the Energy Policy Task Force last year, he said it was to promote energy affordability: “I am grateful for this task force helping to determine how our state can build on this economic momentum, meet growing energy demands, and ensure electricity is affordable for North Carolinians.”
A year later, as we struggle to pay our bills under the affordability crisis, the task force has released its first report on the state’s energy affordability. It offers recommendations but leaves out crucial language. Why? Our state’s energy monopoly, Duke Energy, tried to weaken the report, then abstained from voting, despite being a member of the task force. The utility continues to offer no real solutions.
Throughout the country, this crisis is being fueled by power-hungry data centers and emerging industries like A.I. — which utilities like Duke Energy are using to justify delaying coal plant retirements while proposing to build new, expensive gas-burning power plants — resulting in more air pollution and skyrocketing electric rates. This isn’t surprising from Duke Energy who received an F in Sierra Club’s annual “Dirty Truth” report last year, which grades utilities on how well they are living up to their climate commitments.
We members of the public need to be clued into the energy demands in our state. The data center bubble may pop, leading to over-building of fossil fuel infrastructure that utility customers will still have to pay off over decades. The report from the task force recognizes the need for public reporting by data centers, but we need more to hold data center developers and Duke accountable. There are proven, affordable renewable energy projects that could power our future without breaking the bank. Growing electricity demand does not have to mean growing electricity bills or growing emissions.
North Carolina is already struggling with energy affordability, the health and safety of communities, and climate change, exacerbated by new fossil fuel projects. Late last year, the state’s Department of Environmental Quality approved water and air permits for multiple new methane pipelines proposed to bring a massive amount of gas into North Carolina. If built, these pipelines could largely serve data centers, not ratepayers. But we could still pay the costs, unless strong protections and guardrails are established.
The task force report offers recommendations to ensure tech companies are required to pay their fair share of the costs, but there is no guarantee these recommendations will get implemented, especially given Duke’s influence over our decision-makers.
The solutions to this crisis are right in front of us. We know wind, solar, and battery storage are cheaper, faster and cleaner sources of energy, so deploying those means lower bills for ratepayers. Last year, for the first time in the United States, clean power beat fossil fuels on the U.S. grid for an entire month. Even globally, we had a new first: the world got more power from renewables than coal for the first half of 2025. Further, the world is investing more in clean energy than in fossil fuels.
North Carolina could once again be a leader for clean energy in the South. We can build a clean, reliable grid that benefits everyone while protecting our wallets, our health and our environment. Governor Stein and the task force cannot let Duke ignore the future. They must push Duke to invest in an energy future for the whole state, not just big tech companies who may or may not build a data center powered by coal or gas.
If we do not build a clean energy future, we will continue to suffer from high bills and rolling blackouts during extreme weather events, like our state has faced over the last few years. Wood Mackenzie found that despite years of promises and investments from the gas industry, the gas system is not reliable in extreme winter weather, with evidence of widespread vulnerability. Helene, Chantal and Fern showed us storms are going to keep coming, and continue getting worse. Building new methane gas infrastructure for data centers locks us into dirty fossil fuels for decades to come, with devastating consequences for our communities and the climate.
Duke has shown it cannot be trusted to protect our communities. Ratepayer protections and affordability issues are two sides of the same coin. Governor Stein and the task force must do their part to protect us from higher electric bills from a utility and data center developers not paying their fair share.
Caroline Hansley is a strategist for the N.C. Sierra Club’s Beyond Dirty Fuels campaign.
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