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Shady dealings
The Edwardsport project has also stirred controversy
regarding Duke’s relationship with the Indiana Utility
Duke Energy is currently constructing the Edwardsport
Regulatory Commission. Reports by The Indianapolis Star
coal gasification plant in Knox Country, Indiana. The region
revealed that in early 2010 Duke CEO Jim Rogers and Vice
already has more than four times the amount of required
President James Turner held private meetings with IURC
power capacity, 114 with “one of the highest concentrations
chair David Hardy 120 and Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels 121
of coal-fired generators in the world”.
to warn of some of the new costs associated with the
In 2010, the project director for Edwardsport confidentially construction of Edwardsport.
wrote to Duke complaining of “significant risks” 115 the utility
While Duke Energy argued that the meetings were merely
had taken on through the plant’s construction process. In
a “courtesy heads-up”, other correspondence between
another communication, Duke executive Richard Haviland
Turner and Hardy and between Turner and Rogers
wrote: “We need an exorcist on this job.” 116
raised concerns that Duke may have violated the law by
Originally budgeted for between $1.3bn and 1.6bn, the attempting to influence the course of IURC decisions on
cost for Edwardsport has swelled to almost $3bn. Duke Edwardsport. During the course of email correspondence
Energy was blasted in 2011 by the Indiana Office of Utility Turner offered to host Hardy and his wife on Turner’s
Consumer Counselor as the company attempted to private boat, and even hinted that Hardy could find
push $530m in Edwardsport costs onto customers. An employment at Duke should he rule favorably toward the
OUCC director testified that “Duke has not demonstrated company. According to The Indianapolis Star, Turner also
any budgetary constraints on this project” and that the communicated to Rogers that “he intended to give plenty
“escalating costs have been borne solely by ratepayers, of attention to the Edwardsport plant and try to shift costs
with the benefits going to the [Duke] shareholders”. 117 away from the utility”.
The Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission (IURC) is in Turner resigned from Duke Energy in the wake of The
the midst of deciding “whether Duke committed fraud, Indianapolis Star’s investigation. Governor Daniels fired
concealment or gross mismanagement” regarding the Hardy – although for a matter that was different but also
plant’s massive cost overruns 118 – nearly a billion more involving Duke.
than what was originally approved. Jim Rogers himself
testified before the IURC, saying “Yes, [the plant is] Dirty Coal, Dirty Money
expensive. But it will be the cleanest plant in Indiana.” The Duke Energy political action committee (PAC) spent
Meanwhile, Duke Energy paid a consultancy more than $1.4m during the 2010 federal election cycle alone, and
$3m to testify on the issue. 119 as of November 2011 had already spent $400,000 on
the 2012 election cycle. 122 In addition, Duke Energy has
spent about $24m between 2005 and 2010 on federal
lobbying. 123 If the merger with Progress is successful,
the company will be inheriting even more influence. As of
October 2011, Progress Energy spent $1.4m on lobbyists
for that year – $11m between 2005 and 2010. 124 Like Duke,
Progress hires the lobbying services of the Podesta Group,
as well as lobbyists who are former EPA employees. The
Progress Energy PAC spent more than $200,000 for the
2012 election cycle as of December 2011, having spent
more than half a million during the 2010 cycle. 125
24 Greenwash+20 How some powerful corporations are standing in the way of sustainable development