Deborah Graham and Amy Brown: Duke Energy’s abuse
Regarding the Aug. 27 letter “Duke Energy wants fair trial”: Duke Energy’s chief communications officer complained that someone leaked a deposition from state toxicologist Dr. Ken Rudo to the media. In the letter, Duke says the legal process was “abused” by the leak, and the company just wants to be treated fairly.
Why is Duke Energy more concerned with leaking testimony than its leaking coal ash pits?
The families living near Duke’s coal-waste sites want to be treated fairly, too. We think fairness means that if you make a mess, you clean it up. When you hurt your neighbors, you fix what you’ve done!
The truth is, the leaked testimony doesn’t change the fact that Duke put dangerous, cancer-causing waste into open unlined pits near our homes, and they’re leaking every single day. The leaked testimony doesn’t change the fact that Duke is trying to game the system so it doesn’t ever have to clean up those sites.
Duke is worried about someone abusing the system when its lobbyists and its former employee, Gov. Pat McCrory, got it a sweetheart deal that lets it keep polluting at the expense of the health of our families living nearby. If that’s not an abuse of the system, what is?
Deborah Graham
Salisbury
Amy Brown
Belmont
This story was originally published September 7, 2016 at 4:19 PM with the headline "Deborah Graham and Amy Brown: Duke Energy’s abuse."