DURHAM, N.C.— More than 200 businesses and nonprofit groups have joined prominent climate scientists in pressing North Carolina Gov. Josh Stein to challenge Duke Energy’s huge expansion of fossil fuels.

In a letter sent to Stein today, the groups said Trump administration policies that will accelerate catastrophic climate change make it crucial for the governor to press Duke Energy to stop expanding fossil fuel use. Duke Energy, headquartered in North Carolina, is one of the world’s worst climate polluters.

“Your leadership could help inspire other states to realize they must also directly contest the climate-wrecking actions of corporate polluters in our midst,” the letter said. “You must be clear with the public, corporate leaders and state policy makers that the time is now for us to finally make the dramatic changes that climate scientists say we desperately need.”

The letter was signed by 71 North Carolina community groups and businesses, adding to some 160 groups endorsing a similar appeal in March.

“Now more than ever, we need strong local and state action to combat climate change,” said Mark Marcoplos, a leader in the green building community and former local elected official. “Stopping Duke Energy's anti-climate policies would be a huge step in the direction of less climate chaos.”

In an April letter to Stein, 61 scientists wrote: “We implore you to lead in the transition away from fossil fuels and to the renewable, resilient, equitable, affordable, and sustainable energy future that humanity desperately needs.”

The scientists said a genuine transition to renewable power by such a significant corporate polluter would bolster global efforts to avert full-blown climate, economic and social chaos.

“As attorney general, Stein contested Duke Energy’s gas expansion, suppression of solar and rate hikes,” said Jim Warren, director of NC WARN. “Now, as governor, he’s been pushing to assist communities devastated by Helene and Chantal but seems to be dodging the reality that Charlotte-based Duke Energy is a leading driver of global climate change. So far, the governor won’t even admit that North Carolina is making climate change worse instead of better. That simply has to change.”

Today’s letter suggests two commonsense steps Stein can take to begin weaning North Carolina off fossil fuels while helping communities that are facing more intense and more frequent weather disasters:

• Champion installation of solar power and battery storage on critical public facilities such as fire/rescue stations, medical facilities and buildings used as shelters during severe weather and outages. Prioritize communities most vulnerable to power outages and other harm from fossil fuel-driven extreme weather. This would also reduce regional power demand during normal conditions.
• Require data centers and other large power-using facilities to maximize solar power on rooftops, parking areas, lawns and south-, west- and east-facing walls, along with battery storage. This should be a standard part of investing in new facilities, which receive large taxpayer subsidies. The groups say there is a huge amount of misleading hype about the need for new data centers.

These steps would help protect communities during storms and power outages and create good solar power jobs. They also would help eliminate Duke Energy’s justification for building fracked gas and nuclear power plants — projects that would cause utility bills to soar while the climate crisis worsens.

“The governor can be a climate leader at a time when this country and this planet desperately need this kind of courage,” said Jean Su, director of the Center for Biological Diversity’s energy justice program. “Duke Energy’s reckless expansion of fossil gas is saddling North Carolinians with skyrocketing utility bills and deadlier extreme weather. Politicians need to step up and take on the fossil fuel industry before more lives are lost.”

Duke Energy has one of the largest planned gas buildouts of any utility this decade and has announced it would consider delaying the retirement of its coal fleet in response to the Trump administration’s climate protection rollbacks. The corporation generates only 1.4% of its power from solar.

A December lawsuit brought by the town of Carrboro, N.C., against Duke Energy says its top executives have misled the public for decades about climate science and the health harms from the corporation’s increased reliance on coal and gas. That deception continues and has fooled many into thinking this state is on the right track, the groups told Stein.