Upstaging Duke Energy’s Greenwashing Antics

By scott parkin

Yesterday, Duke Energy CEO Jim Rogers spoke at the 6th annual Sustainable Energy Conference in Raleigh to promote Duke’s clean energy agenda which includes building a dirty coal plant in Cliffside, North Carolina. rogers-raleigh

That doesn’t sound like “clean energy” to me.

A lot of other people in North Carolina agree.

So much that they’ve taken to following Rogers wherever he goes and holding him accountable. Yesterday, a dozen people from a number of groups ( NC WARN, Interfaith Power and Light, Croatan Earth First!, Mountain Justice, Southern Energy Network and Greenpeace) held a protest outside his appearance in Raleigh.

On Monday, April 20, a lot more people are going to be showing up on the doorsteps of Duke’s headquarters in Charlotte to hold Rogers accountable for his corporate double-speak of promoting “clean energy” and building a new coal plant. Not only will they be protesting, but many won’t be leaving until the police take them away.

The Stop Cliffside Coalition is made up of a dozen environmental, faith-based and civic groups. Climate scientist James Hansen and actor Martin Sheen have both endorsed and lent their support. Folks from Appalachia and across the south will be voicing their protest at Rogers and Duke’s plans to pollute North Carolina’s air and water, burn up the climate and fuel it all with mountaintop removal coal.

Anti-coal advocates have formed a polycentric movement which is fighting for climate justice all over the country. They are stepping it up with a variety of tactics (like bird-dogging Jim Rogers wherever he goes) and taking more and more risks to put and end to coal (dirty or coal) once and for all.