Duke Energy Indiana will wrap up its 2021 20-year energy planning process on Nov. 16. Throughout this process, Duke customers, Duke-territory city and state leaders, Sierra Club's Indiana Beyond Coal Campaign members & other advocates have called on Duke to
- Move beyond coal before 2030
- Eliminate fracked gas plants from their plans
- Transition to 100% affordable, renewable energy before 2030
Duke Energy is Indiana’s largest electric utility, with customers in 69 of Indiana’s 92 counties, and should be setting an example as a leader in clean renewable energy. Instead, Duke is continuing to burn dirty coal and planning to build more fossil fuel plants that damage our health and environment.
Duke Energy operates one of the dirtiest coal plants in the country, the Gibson Super Polluter in Gibson County, Indiana, and one of the most expensive, Edwardsport Coal Gasification Plant in Knox County.
Duke is lagging behind all of Indiana’s other investor-owned utilities in terms of transitioning from fossil fuels to clean energy and gets an F from Sierra Club’s Dirty Truth Report.
Duke’s insistence on doubling down on fossil fuels has led to higher bills for customers and will continue to do so until they retire their expensive coal plants and replace them with affordable clean energy -- not fracked gas.
At Duke’s last energy planning meeting, we delivered a petition signed by more than 1,350 Duke customers and Sierra Club members, with 536 personal comments urging Duke to take action on the climate crisis.
This summer, 23 Indiana public officials — including the mayors of Carmel and West Lafayette, state legislators, and city, county and town councilors — sent a letter to Duke calling on them to retire their coal plants and replace them with clean energy.
In October, advocates held a press conference in Lafayette including Rep. Chris Campbell, Councilwoman Kathy Parker, David Henderson, Utility Director for West Lafayette, Susan Schechter, local business owner and solar homeowner, and Rahul Durai of Confront the Climate Crisis. You can watch it here.
Dave Henderson, Utility Director for West Lafayette, said Lafayette, West Lafayette and Tippecanoe County are working on a regional climate action plan. He said, “We need Duke to be an important partner in meeting our climate action goals.”
As the International Panel on Climate Change calls the climate crisis "Code Red for humanity" we cannot afford for Duke Energy to continue delaying transitioning away from fossil fuels. Time is running out. Now is the time for Duke Energy Indiana to heed the urgent warnings for decision-makers to act on climate. Share our thread on social media:
And leave comments for Duke Energy using the hashtags #RepowerIndiana #GetMovingDuke #AllEyesOnDuke to tell them the time is now to move away from coal.:
