Two climate activism organizations have taken legal action against what they describe as Duke Energy’s pervasive influence spending.

NC Warn, a North Carolina climate justice watchdog, and Friends of the Earth, an international environmental organization with a local chapter in Durham, are fighting to stop Duke Energy from using consumer money to garner political and civic influence.

Executive Director of NC Warn Jim Warren says the Charlotte based energy company uses over $80 million annually of money from their customers on what he calls “deceptive advertising.”

“Duke energy has successfully misled many people around the state into thinking that so called ‘natural gas’ is clean,” says Warren. “Duke is undergoing a massive expansion of the use of fracked gas at the very time when climate scientists are warning we have to reign in fossil fuels, and especially gas, because it is one of the leading drivers of the climate crisis.”

The petition claims that Duke Energy’s misleading advertising is almost entirely funded by customer bills, and the company uses an “accounting fiction” to claim that its stockholders or employees pay for image-polishing propaganda.

According to Warren, much of this messaging is used to lead the public into thinking they are working toward renewable energy solutions, which statistics show is far from the truth.

Duke is only at three percent renewables and plan to be at only seven or eight percent by 2033, while Warren claims many utility companies around the nation are already above 20 percent.

“Clean technologies and storage are now cheaper than grid power in most parts of the US, and Duke Energy is doing the bare minimum even while [in] every one of their TV ads you see solar panels,” says Warren. “They spend a lot of money to make people think Duke Energy is doing what the public wants them to do, which is to really go green.”

Duke Energy generates 90 percent or more of the state’s electricity.

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