Regulators are deciding whether to set a precedent and allow the country’s largest electric company to charge North Carolina consumers the full, multi-billion-dollar cost of cleaning up coal ash dumps.
The North Carolina Utilities Commission on Monday will open hearings with Duke Energy Corp. about who should pay the cost of dealing with the toxic byproducts of decades of burning coal for power.
The company and the state’s official utilities consumer advocate last week struck a partial deal reducing the company’s requested rate increase from almost 15 percent and its requested potential profit margin to below 10 percent.
Still unsettled is whether the Charlotte-based company can charge North Carolina consumers nearly $200 million a year for coal-ash cleanup and recover storm rebuilding costs from last year.
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