Carrboro’s Lawsuit Against Duke Energy Comes As No Surprise

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Good morning, readers.

Did hotter temperatures push you to crank the AC more this summer? Has your town used your hard-earned taxpayer dollars to make repairs from increasingly severe and frequent storms or extreme temperatures? 

If the answer to either of those questions is yes, you may be interested in the town of Carrboro’s first-of-its-kind lawsuit against Duke Energy. Because sure, climate change is an existential crisis for humanity’s longterm survival. But it’s also just making life more expensive.

“We’ve been tracking damages from climate change, and it’s clear that our town and hard-working taxpayers cannot and should not be forced to pay for this,” said Carrboro Mayor Barbara Foushee at a press conference this week.

In the 70-page complaint, the town argues that the utility engaged in a “knowing deception campaign concerning the causes and dangers posed by the climate crisis.” It also “seeks to hold the company responsible” for damages to the town and its infrastructure due to the increased severity of storms, flooding, and temperature caused by climate change.

While Carrboro’s complaint is unique in that it’s the first municipality to file suit against an electric utility, The New York Times, in its reporting on the litigation, notes that state and local governments have brought more than two dozen lawsuits against energy companies across the United States including oil and gas companies.

These complaints allege that companies knew about the effects of climate change and misled the public. None of these cases have yet gone to trial and whether they should be tried in state or federal courts is a point of dispute.

In national news about the lawsuit, Carrboro has been mentioned as “a town next to Chapel Hill” and a town “about 36 miles northwest of Raleigh” as if the lawsuit emerged from a sleepy void in the Old North State. 

But for anyone familiar with the “People’s Republic of Carrboro,” it probably does not come as a surprise that the town of 21,000 is taking aggressive legal action against one of the country’s largest electric companies.

Read more about the lawsuit, a natural step for the ultra-progressive hub, here.

And have a good Friday.

—Chase 

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