Growing up on a farm in Nash County, I never thought much about the environment — but I felt it. 

Summers were hot, but the breeze kept us cool. We didn’t have air conditioners in those days. We worked hard, and the land provided a harvest that sustained us. When you grow up farming, you learn quickly that our survival depends on our relationship with the Earth. No trees, no rain. No rain, no crops. 

Today, we know that our planet is warming and changing our weather for the worse. We have to act — and those who can do the most are big corporations like Duke Energy. We depend on Duke for electricity. 

Duke needs to deliver that. But Duke also shouldn’t put shareholder profits over careful stewardship of the natural resources that we all depend on. 

Duke Energy promised to transition to clean, renewable energy like solar and start to shut down fossil fuel plants that pollute the air and contribute to climate change. Instead, they’re planning to wreak havoc on the environment with new pipelines and gas plants while paying their top executives millions and raising rates on the rest of us who are just scraping by. 

There’s no one to hold Duke executives accountable — except us. I’ve been to those public hearings. I’ve heard people with degrees and data lay it all out — how the money’s being used, how we don’t need a rate increase. But it never seems to matter. They do what they were going to do anyway. 

That’s not democracy. 

My energy bill keeps going up, and Duke Energy just keeps asking for more. It’s like the company doesn’t care how the rest of us are living. Duke says it needs more money to upgrade its systems. But that’s part of doing business. You don’t ask the public to pay for your security system — you build that into your costs. And you definitely don’t give your CEO millions and an increase in pay while telling Grandma she has to turn off her heat. That’s not right.

For me, I left the farm when I went to college at UNC-Greensboro in 1969, then started a career working for AT&T in Greensboro. That was back when AT&T was basically a monopoly, just like Duke Energy is now.

Back then, phones were hardwired to your house. I remember when we couldn’t even buy our own phones — they said it would “degrade the system.” But once that monopoly broke up, we got innovation: cellphones, the internet, all kinds of technology we couldn’t even dream of. That’s what happens when you have competition. 

I’m retired now. I live on a fixed income and I feel the damage from Duke, a different monopoly. 

That’s why I got involved with PowerUp NC in Raleigh, a group formed by the N.C. League of Conservation Voters. I liked how the organization brings people together, especially from the grassroots. Because I believe that’s where real change starts. I’ve always told people: We are the government. Not those folks up in Congress, not the corporations with their lobbyists. Us. 

But we keep acting like our voices don’t matter. So we don’t speak up. And then we’re surprised when they ignore us.

I may be getting older, but I still believe in people power. I still plant my garden. I still talk to my neighbors. I still show up. Because I know that when folks come together, we can move mountains. Or at least stop them from being strip-mined.

We’re not helpless. We’re not voiceless. We just have to remember who the government really is and answers to.

And Duke Energy executives? They’ve had it too easy for too long. It’s time for them to step up.

Ernestine Ledbetter is a 74-year-old retiree and N.C. League of Conservation Voters’ PowerUp NC volunteer from Garner. This column is produced in partnership with the N.C. League of Conservation Voters. It is syndicated by Beacon Media and is available to republish for free anywhere under Beacon Media’s guidelines.