caswell

I think you're over-exaggerating. No one has called for the state government to seize any assets of Duke Power, though, there is precedent for them to do so.

What everyone with a brain is asking for is for Duke to step up and pay for their mistake without passing the cost to the customers. They've made billions off of us, why should we have to foot the bill for their mistake?

Wilbar Do you think we as tax payers need to pay Duke for cleaning up the Ash pill in Ashe?

Duke is loaded with Money and they pay no FEDERAL TAX.

The gowilkes commie fantasy would be to destroy all private business, and replace them with govt bureaucrats who would fairly distribute the wealth. Primarily, to them for sitting on their butts.

Hey, it's only a short hop over to Cuba, comrades!

duke power s----

Do you make your own electricity? Cool!

No, but we (The people of North Carolina) subsidize Duke Power. We give them tax breaks, eased the regulations to save them money, and help their infrastructure. Duke Power made a $ 7.1 BILLION dollar profit in 2013. They paid ZERO federal tax and a miniscule amount of state taxes. Their CEO just got a huge pay bonus to the tune of $13 million dollars. They had two huge safety failures on their coal ash ponds and are having to replace 6 other coal pond systems. They are going to charge the customers for this instead of dipping into their $7 billion dollars of profit.

They've Privatized Profits and Socialized Loses.

Do you make your own electricity? Cool!

It came as no shock to me about Duke Power. I have never and hope I never have to be a customer of theirs. I feel for those of you who are.

George H W Bush good luck with your posting.....it is the user of the energy that will pay out...

In the grand scheme of all businesses, it's a given that any cost that any business experiences will ultimately end up being part of the product/service provided to the consumer. Unless the business is run by a bunch of dumb rocks that don't understand about profit and loss or how to calculate the final pricing of a unit.

That said, Duke either decided to break the law by not properly securing their waste products, or, the laws were not in place to adequately deal with the storage of those waste products. IF Duke broke laws, then, the company should have to pay for cost of the cleanup FROM ITS PROFITS, NOT from future sales to consumers. IF the laws were not there to avoid such a calamity, then, for sure the laws MUST be changed, but, Duke should be able to legally pass that cost along to the consumers.

However, from a morally responsible point of view, a company as big and profitable as Duke Energy, should not pass the cost along to consumers, knowing well that it was just a matter of time until a spill occurred, and, knowing they spent millions to influence how the laws are written that ultimately made oversight minimal at best.

If all of Duke Energy customers don't start bombarding the Utilities Commission with complaints if Duke starts wanting us to foot the bill, then we deserve what we get socked with. They cause the problem, then it should come out of their pockets.

http://www.wral.com/duke-ce.../13460600/

Duke Energy CEO Lynn Good said Friday that ratepayers will shoulder most of the cost of emptying out the utility's 31 coal ash ponds in North Carolina.

Duke spokeswoman Paige Sheehan stressed the company, not its customers, will pay to clean up the company's recent 39,000-ton coal ash spill in the Dan River.

But if the state requires the utility to close down and move its other existing ash pits, then utility customers, not shareholders, will likely pay most of that cost.

Sheehan referred WRAL News to remarks by Duke Energy CFO Steve Young on a recent corporate earnings call, talking about environmental compliance costs.

"We currently estimate we will spend between $4.5 billion and $5.5 billion over the next 10 years, with $900 million expected to be spent in the 2014 to 2016 time frame," Young told investors on the Feb. 18, 2014 call.