You’ve probably heard about Duke Energy’s rate hikes at this point. You’ve seen it in your monthly bill. You’ve ranted about it at the dinner table. You’ve turned up the thermostat and turned off the ceiling fans. 

Some of those rate hikes went before the NC Supreme Court last week. The case essentially presented a choice of greed v. fairness, of the working class v. corporations, of everyday North Carolinians v. Duke Energy. The Republican majority sided with Duke, locking in rate hikes and worsening the cost-of-living crisis. 

Duke Energy is one of the most profitable energy monopolies in the country (they raked in $5 billion in profit last year), and yet they continue raising North Carolinians’ electric bills, year after year. Duke has raised rates by about 22% since 2020. Now they’re requesting another 18% rate hike. 

This is the last corporation that needed to be bailed out by the NC Supreme Court. The conservative majority did it anyway. 

Democratic Justice Anita Earls explained the Republican majority’s argument in her dissent, writing that the decision “amounts to little more than the majority burying its head ostrich-like in the sand as to the actual evidence.” 

The evidence that Earls was referring to? 

Nearly 20% of North Carolinians– 1 in 5 people –  were unable to pay their electric bill at least once in 2021. 

90,000 North Carolinians make at or below the minimum wage of $7.25 an hour, and simply cannot afford another rate increase that would add about $240 to the average customer’s bill each year. 

Earls went further, directly quoting some of the North Carolinians who provided testimony on the rate hikes. “A rate increase could pose the risk of having insufficient funds to ‘meet other essential needs like food and medicine’ or not allowing a child to participate on a sports team,” Earls wrote. “Increasing rates would place ‘an undue burden on those who are already struggling financially.’’” 

As upsetting it is to see the 5-2 Republican majority on the NC Supreme Court side with a monopoly at the expense of North Carolinians, it was refreshing to see Earls do something that few other justices do– listen to the people she serves. 

The Supreme Court is our last line of defense. They had a chance to defend us last week against rising costs and corporate greed. They failed. They had a choice between considering the evidence provided by their constituents, or burying their heads in the sand. They chose the ostrich route.  

We deserve better than this. Justice Earls proves that we can do better than this. We need more leaders like her on the Court, leaders who defend communities against predatory corporations, leaders who weigh the evidence and not the campaign contributions, leaders who, when it comes down to it– listen to us.