Zachary Turner

Duke says it earned almost $1.6 billion in profit last quarter.

The company's president, Harry Sedaris, lauded new data center development.

This includes new projects from Microsoft, Amazon, Digital Realty, and other hyperscale data center developers.

Duke continues to court new facilities, even as several local governments have already passed moratoriums against it.

Resident Sheila Sherrick has asked local officials in Lee County, North Carolina, to pass a similar resolution.

If everybody's rates are going up, where are the data centers contributing?

She sees a mismatch between Duke's current rate hike proposal and the savings the utility has promised.

For NPR News, I'm Zachary Turner in Charlotte.

And I'm Giles Snyder.

A 2009 EPA finding identified six greenhouse gases, including carbon dioxide and methane, as public health threats and provided the foundation for the agency to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from several industries.

Zeldin spoke two hours east of Asheville, which was devastated by Hurricane Helene in 2024, an event exacerbated by warmer-than-average ocean temperatures.

He said it was no longer his job to regulate planet warming emissions.

For NPR News, I'm Zachary Turner in Charlotte.

This week, Duke Energy announced the largest capital spending plan of any regulated utility in the country to meet the power demands of data centers.

The utility leads the southeastern energy efficiency programs for homes and businesses, but its Carolina companies hover at or below the national average.

Research Director Maggie Schober contributed to the report and says southeastern utilities are missing opportunities to save customers significant amounts on monthly bills.

The report also finds Southeastern utilities are doing very little to improve energy efficiency among industrial customers, such as large data centers.

For NPR News, I'm Zachary Turner in Charlotte.