Attorneys for Duke Energy and the town of Carrboro exchanged initial oral arguments Thursday in what both sides believe is the first instance of a U.S. municipality suing an electric utility over its climate change policies.
The parties spent more than five hours at the Wake County Courthouse in downtown Raleigh to answer questions from North Court Business Court Judge Mark Davis. The hearing was about Duke Energy’s motion to dismiss the case, which Carrboro seeks to advance into a pre-trial discovery phase and eventually a jury trial.
“We are going to be able to quantify the significant change in the use of fossil fuels as a result of Duke’s deception,” said Matthew Quinn, a lawyer representing Carrboro with the Raleigh firm Lewis & Roberts.
Carrboro launched its case against Duke Energy on Dec. 3, when the town council unanimously voted to authorize a lawsuit against its local electricity provider. The Orange County town of 21,000 positioned itself as a property owner facing millions of dollars in climate change costs, including road repairs, stormwater infrastructure protection, and the cooling of public buildings.
Quinn linked these expenses to what Carrboro alleges has been Duke’s decades-long effort to mislead the public about the adverse effects of a warming planet. Its case is being funded by the Durham-based environmental nonprofit NC WARN, not Carrboro taxpayers, with personnel assistance from another environmental nonprofit named the Center for Biological Diversity.
In January, the North Carolina Supreme Court moved the lawsuit from Orange County Superior Court to N.C. Business Court, where it was designated a “complex business case,” due to its perceived complexity and potentially significant ramifications.
On March 17, Charlotte-based Duke Energy asked the N.C. Business Court to dismiss the case, arguing global climate change is the result of actions around the world, including “human-made emissions and other sources going back over 100 years.” The company also contended neither the N.C. legislature nor the federal government has empowered Carrboro to challenge the state’s energy and climate policy decisions.
At the hearing Thursday, Duke Energy attorneys said the state instead authorizes the North Carolina Utilities Commission to regulate Duke Energy, which operates as a local monopoly through two subsidiaries, Duke Energy Progress and Duke Energy Carolinas.
“This is an issue for the experts,” said Hunter Bruton of Raleigh’s Smith Anderson, one of two firms representing Duke at the hearing. “But it’s not the experts in the courtroom. It’s the people in the North Carolina Utilities Commission.”
A key issue at the center of the case
This was a key point of contention during the hearing: Whether the lawsuit hinged on Duke’s alleged deception or Duke’s purported greenhouse gas emissions. Quinn posited it was the former, saying the company’s past words make it liable to damages incurred by climate change costs.
Carrboro alleged Duke Energy officials were active participants in groups that acknowledged the risks of burning fossil fuels as early as 1968 but failed to act while instead participating in other groups that downplayed those same risks. Beyond that, the suit accused Duke of aspiring to create the impression online that it is shifting to renewable sources faster than it actually has.
The suit notes Duke has aimed to portray itself as a leader in renewables, aligning itself as a leader in the transition from fossil fuel generation. That includes a page on Duke’s website titled “The Businesses We’re In” with the text set over an image of solar panels.
The N.C. Utilities Commission approved a resource plan for Duke to pursue the construction of 6,700 megawatts of solar energy; seven new gas-fired power plants totaling 5,620 megawatts; 2,700 megawatts of battery storage; and 1,200 megawatts of onshore wind, The News & Observer previously reported. The company aims to complete the projects by 2031 with offshore wind and new nuclear projects scheduled several years later, The N&O reported.
The plan also officially sunk a 70% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions target that was written into state law, with Duke and the Public Staff, a ratepayers’ advocate, agreeing that meeting that goal would be too expensive and threaten reliability, The N&O reported.
While denying corporate marketing deception, Duke lawyers on Thursday framed the case as a matter of emissions regulations addressed by the federal Clean Air Act, not state law.
“The complaint’s about global climate change, your honor,” one attorney told Davis, the judge. “They can’t amend complaint as a matter of their briefing. They can’t do it here in court. They’ve decided to stand on this, and this is the hill they’re going to have to die on.”
Influence on decisions debated
Another legal principle debated before Davis was whether the plaintiff could trace the defendant’s actions to the alleged damages.
Duke Energy argued it is impossible to measure how its approach toward fossil fuels and renewable energies influenced the decisions of people around the world whose actions contribute to climate change.
Carrboro’s legal team countered that any role Duke’s policies played in the town incurring climate change-related costs is a sufficient basis for a legal case.
The town’s lawsuit doesn’t give a monetary value on the alleged damages but says total costs are “severe and greater than Plaintiff or the public should bear without compensation.”
At the end of the hearing, Judge Davis gave both parties four weeks to file supplementary briefings, after which he will decide whether the unprecedented case will proceed.
Tammy Grubb and Adam Wagner contributed reporting.
This story was originally published September 26, 2025 at 6:30 AM.