Somewhere in a boardroom in Charlotte, North Carolina, someone at Duke Energy looked at their company’s nearly $5 billion in annual profit and thought, “You know what? Not enough.” And so here we are. Again. Another rate hike. Another round of everyday North Carolinians being told to tighten their belts so that a monopoly utility can loosen theirs.

Duke Energy is asking the North Carolina Utilities Commission to approve an 18% increase in residential electric rates over the next two years. For the average customer, that works out to roughly $34 more per month by 2028, according to WRAL. That’s on top of a 22% increase in electric bills since 2020. Let me do the math for you: your power bill has gone up by nearly a quarter in six years, and Duke wants to pile on another fifth. If you’re keeping score at home, that’s what we in the business call “getting hosed.”

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But don’t worry. Duke says it’s for “reliability and economic growth.” Because nothing says economic growth like forcing retirees to choose between keeping the lights on and buying their medication.

The numbers tell a story that Duke’s PR team would rather you not read. According to the Energy and Policy Institute, rate changes alone have increased the typical monthly bill by about $50 since 2020. That’s a jump of nearly 45%, and that’s before you even factor in hotter summers or colder winters driving up usage. Duke Energy Progress kept 17.4% of the revenue it collected from customers as profit in 2025. That’s not a public service. That’s a business model built on a captive audience.

And that’s really the crux of the issue, isn’t it? You don’t get to choose your power company. Unlike your cell phone provider, your internet, or where you buy your groceries, electricity in North Carolina and across the country is a monopoly. Duke provides it. You pay for it. End of discussion. There is no Verizon vs. AT&T of the power grid. There’s Duke, and there’s “sit in the dark.” Those are your options.

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At a standing room only public hearing before the NC Utilities Commission in Raleigh, residents made it painfully clear what these increases mean for real people.

“For someone like me, there is no way to simply absorb an 18% increase,” said Fran Lynch, a senior living on a fixed income. “My income does not go up when Duke’s rates go up. When my bills go up, something else gets cut: medicine, groceries.”

Another resident, Rick Martin, put it even more bluntly: “That means I will have to decide what to cut out, food or medicine, for a company that makes billions. Fifteen percent doesn’t mean much, but for retirees, it’s life-changing.”

Let that sink in. Food or medicine. For a company that just posted nearly $5 billion in profit in a system without any competition. If that doesn’t make your blood boil, check your pulse.

To make matters worse, a good chunk of this rate hike is earmarked for Duke’s capital expenditures. That’s corporate speak for “we want you to pay for our infrastructure upgrades that we’ll then write off on our taxes.” Duke recently unveiled a $103 billion capital spending plan, the largest of any regulated utility in the United States, according to Utility Dive. They’re already deploying more than $1 billion in capital every single month. And guess who’s footing that bill? Spoiler alert: it’s not anyone in the boardroom.

Oh, and here’s a fun wrinkle. Industrial customers, including the data centers that are gobbling up energy at record rates, are only looking at a 12% increase over two years. Residential customers? Eighteen percent. As one resident at the hearing said, “Big data should pay their own way. We shouldn’t be footing their bill.” Hard to argue with that logic.

State Sen. Jonah Garson didn’t mince words either: “North Carolinians cannot afford a 16% to 18% rate hike on their base rates right now.” Governor Josh Stein and Attorney General Jeff Jackson have both opposed the proposed increase, according to the Charlotte Observer. At least someone in Raleigh is paying attention.

But opposition from politicians means nothing if the Utilities Commission rubber stamps this like it has in the past. This isn’t a Republican or Democrat issue. This is a “regular people vs. corporate greed” issue. Your 80 year old neighbor on a fixed income doesn’t care about party lines when she’s deciding between air conditioning and her heart medication in July.

Look, I’m a capitalist. I believe in free markets, competition, and the ability to earn a profit. What I don’t believe in is a system where a monopoly with no competition can continuously raise rates on a product that people literally cannot survive without, all while posting billions in profit and spending $103 billion on projects that customers are forced to subsidize. That’s not capitalism. That’s a shakedown with a utility bill attached.

Power ranks right up there with water and the roof over our heads. These are not luxuries. These are the bare minimum requirements for survival in modern America. And when the company providing one of those essentials operates with zero competition and near total impunity, something has to give. It shouldn’t be your grocery budget.

It’s time for the North Carolina General Assembly, the Governor’s office, and the Utilities Commission to step up and do what they were put there to do: protect the people of this state. Not the shareholders. Not the lobbyists. The people who flip that switch every morning and pray the bill doesn’t break their bank.

Enough is enough. Say it with me, North Carolina. Enough. Is. Enough.

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I spent my childhood admiring the military and government institutions. I adored everything they stood for. My sister and I, along with neighborhood friends, waved American flags on our street after September 11th. But the world has changed since then. President Trump brought “patriotic populism” to the forefront in the wake of the “Tea Party” movement during the Obama administration. 

President Trump’s distrust of the government revealed deep flaws within our institutions, only levied by the increasingly radical behavior of the Democratic party. Beyond this, the United States had at the time of his election been in two seemingly unending wars, faced an economic collapse, and had [and has] a highly non-inclusive media environment in the age of the internet and social media. The bottom line is Americans in both parties are angry, and only our institutions can save us.

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The institutions have let the American people down. From the Treaty of Versailles to Abu Ghraib, the institutions have let the American people down, time and time again. The difference is that there was a more ingrained and inherent trust in the institutions of our government post-WWII, that is until the economic collapse of 2008. It’s not the case today. Both parties lack trust in each other and the government itself.  

The Role of the President

President Biden, for his part, has done little to quell divisions in either party or among the American people more broadly. This is likely due to him merely being a puppet of the Democratic party. With few thoughts of his own and lacking support from hardline members of his party, his hands are largely tied. With his advanced age obvious to all, there is likely little appetite for an internal fight. He is not the great unifier he promised to be on the campaign trail; instead, he is the great capitulator to the extreme members of his party, whether his dementia-riddled state realizes it or not. While Biden remains asleep at the wheel, the country continues running in two different directions. On Inauguration Day, a mere 6-months ago, a CBS News poll found that “54% of Americans say the biggest threat to our way of life isn't economic collapse, natural disasters or foreign invasions — but our own fellow Americans.” Little has changed in the 6-months since he took office. 

One can’t help but think of the words from the Declaration of Independence: “when in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.”

No one should argue that we are in the midst of a Civil War or separation, but we are as divided as at any point in American history. That could be due to the American people not having anyone to trust at the helm of power, especially those behind the scenes. 

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Americans, like most around the world, have always lacked trust in politicians. But, trust in non-political institutions held a respected place in our democracy, at least until recently. Some examples include the botching of the pandemic by the NIH and CDC, the FBI’s mistakes in the investigations into both Hillary Clinton and President Trump, soaring violent crime in many cities throughout the US… just to name a few. 

Regaining Trust

So how does the government regain trust among its citizens? Government agencies and others have to return to their traditional apolitical roots. They have to regain their independence from politics and, thereby, the trust of the people. That insulates our political system from the whims of the mob and political ideologies. It seems unclear how they do that at this juncture when so many within the federal government lean toward a singular political ideology. Still, something must be done to restore confidence. First, the federal government must hire talented individuals from beyond the sanctum of the largest cities, especially those within DC. 

Beyond that, there has to be action taken against “so-called” journalistic entities and social media outlets that operate largely without any regulation, either against libel or other legal action, when erroneous smear campaigns are presented on their platforms. If social media platforms want to ban users from giving their opinions, Section 230 should not apply. Moreover, media outlets like Fox News, MSNBC, CNN, and others should not be allowed to blatantly attack anyone without sufficient evidence. That evidence should be provided upon request. Media outlets should be the prevailers of truth, not beholden to their advertisers and their next buck. 

While all of these recommendations are unlikely to occur, they should be fought for and receive bipartisan support in certain instances. The problem we face is much more minor with the politicians; they tend to follow the crowd. The institutions follow them, as they’re their bosses. We have to change the fourth estate of government, the media, and what has become of the media and social media. We could put simple regulations in place with the political will to do so, but it would require the will to do so. ᴰᴰ

Do you believe the editorial discretion of the big tech firms (i.e. Google, Twitter, Facebook, etc) have taken their power too far? Do you believe they should be more harshly regulated to prevent potential violations of the First Amendment?

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