To reflect on the year, Chapelboro.com is re-publishing some of the top stories that impacted and defined our community’s experience in 2024. These stories and topics affected Chapel Hill, Carrboro and the rest of our region.

At the start of December, The Carrboro Town Council came out of a closed session with the surprise announcement: they approved for the town to sue Duke Energy over the energy provider’s “extensive, unreasonable and unnecessary reliance upon fossil fuels in the conduct of its businesses,” claiming it is causing climate change to be “materially exacerbated.” 

The Town of Carrboro’s lawsuit appears to be one of the first of its kind in the country, where a municipality is attempting to hold an energy provider accountable for the effects of climate change. Carrboro Mayor Barbara Foushee and the rest of the town council voted unanimously to pass a resolution authorizing the litigation during their meeting on Dec. 3.

“The motivation for Carrboro is pretty simple,” Foushee said at a press conference at Carrboro Town Hall held the afternoon after the lawsuit was filed the following day.  “When I think about righting wrongs and seeking justice, somebody has to step out and be the voice, and take the action. Today, we’re doing that.”

Carrboro Mayor Barbara Foushee speaks to the media during a press conference at town hall about the local government’s lawsuit against Duke Energy. (Photo via the Town of Carrboro.)

In a release from the town, Foushee said, “We have to speak truth to power as we continue to fight the existential threat that is climate change. The climate crisis continues to burden our community and cost residents their hard-earned tax dollars. Duke Energy’s knowledge of the environmental injustice being caused by the use of fossil fuels has unfairly plagued our community for decades. Historically underserved and marginalized communities are facing disproportionate impacts and health risks that are associated with climate change. This was not an easy decision to make but I believe that we must be courageous as we call out these injustices and seek change and accountability.”

The Center for Biological Diversity is assisting with the case, and the climate justice non-profit NC Warn is bearing the financial costs of the case. The town is being represented by Matt Quinn of Lewis & Roberts, PLLC in the lawsuit.

The legal reasoning behind the lawsuit appears to be similar to that of cases brought against big tobacco and pharmaceutical companies. Both industries have had to pay extensive damages for obscuring the risks of their products to individuals. How that reasoning translates to energy companies and the Town of Carrboro remains to be seen.

Earlier in December, a spokesperson for Duke Energy shared a brief statement with Chapelboro about the litigation, saying the company is reviewing the complaint filed by Carrboro.

“Duke Energy is committed to its customers and communities and will continue working with policymakers and regulators to deliver reliable and increasingly clean energy while keeping rates as low as possible,” added the spokesperson.

In an interview with 97.9 The Hill, NC WARN Executive Director Jim Warren suggested that the initial benefit of the lawsuit was to increase the attention paid to energy company’s role in the climate crisis. The lawsuit filing and subsequent press conference has garnered much national attention, with coverage in in the New York Times, NPR, and many other national outlets.

“This lawsuit exposes Duke Energy executives as using the tobacco scandal playbook,” Warren said at the time. “They’re making the global climate crisis worse despite widespread and accelerating misery, and they’re still expanding fossil fuels and suppressing renewables – in flat defiance of scientists demanding that we do the exact opposite. We need the judicial system to hold Duke Energy leadership accountable and finally break their corporate control over our political system and public decisions.”

While the attention from the press and influencing public opinion may be short term benefits of the lawsuit, legal remedy is likely to come much slower. In an interview with 97.9 The Hill, Foushee said the case will likely be in the legal system for years.

“It’s my understanding that it will wind its way through the court system,” she said. “It could be a couple of years before we hear anything.”

While it may be years before the public learns anything new in the case, it has the potential to end up being one of the most long-lasting and impactful local stories of 2024.

Featured photo via the Town of Carrboro.

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