Duke Energy Talking Out Both Sides of Its Mouth

onMar 18, 2008 @ 16:02 PDT

Power generation giant Duke Energy can’t talk the green talk, without walking the green walk on climate change.

Check out our online petition at the end of this post.

Business Week ran a story recently highlighting US Climate Action Partnership (USCAP) members who appear to be playing both sides of the fence when it comes to the issue of global warming and greenhouse gas reduction.

Case in point, power-giant Duke Energy who is a member of USCAP but is also supporting the “Americans for Balanced Energy,” a coal industry front group that has undertaken a $40 million PR/lobby campaign to sell the virtues of “clean coal” and unproven carbon capture and sequestration technology to the American public.

As Frank O’Donnell of Clean Air Watch rightly states, “many of these companies want the image of being green but are putting their money on the other side of the issue.”

We’ve started an online petition urging Duke Energy to drop its financial support of “Americans for Balanced Energy Choices” and start walking the walk on climate change.

You can click here to go to the petition and sign your name.

By Kevin Grandia

Kevin is a contributor and strategic adviser to DeSmog. He runs the digital marketing agency Spake Media House. Named a “Green Hero” by Rolling Stone Magazine and one of the “Top 50 Tweeters” on climate change and environment issues, Kevin has appeared in major news media outlets around the world for his work on digital campaigning. Kevin has been involved in the public policy arena in both the United States and Canada for more than a decade. For five years he was the managing editor of DeSmogBlog.com. In this role, Kevin’s research into the “climate denial industry” and the right-wing think tank networks was featured in news media articles around the world. He is most well known for his ground-breaking research into David and Charles Koch’s massive financial investments in the Republican and tea party networks. Kevin is the first person to be designated a “Certified Expert” on the political and community organizing platform NationBuilder. Prior to DeSmog, Kevin worked in various political and government roles. He was Senior Advisor to the Minister of State for Multiculturalism and a Special Assistant to the Minister of State for Asia Pacific, Foreign Affairs for the Government of Canada. Kevin also worked in various roles in the British Columbia provincial government in the Office of the Premier and the Ministry of Health. In 2008 Kevin co-founded a groundbreaking new online election tool called Vote for Environment which was later nominated for a World Summit Award in recognition of the world’s best e-Content and innovative ICT applications. Kevin moved to Washington, DC in 2010 where he worked for two years as the Director of Online Strategy for Greenpeace USA and has since returned to his hometown of Vancouver, Canada.