Dear Ms. Janet Cowell:
As North Carolina State Treasurer and manager of $93.7 billion in public pension funds, please join other major institutional investors to force Duke Energy to take steps towards fulfilling its public responsibility to provide safe and reliable energy to its rate payers.
I urge you to join the Nathan Cummings Foundation and other investors to demand an internal investigation to determine how this coal ash problem has been so negligently mismanaged. I also call upon you to join CalPERS and NYC Retirement Systems in removing the Duke Energy board members who should have kept a close eye on the safe handling of toxic coal ash.
Why is this important?
Duke Energy continues to violate clean water rules and to pollute our state's groundwater and rivers. The resulting coal ash disaster has been mismanaged, showing fundamental flaws in Duke Energy's fiscal and institutional integrity.
The Nathan Cummings Foundation and 20 other major investors have called on Duke Energy's board to conduct a prompt internal investigation of the coal ash disaster.
The second recent breakthrough was a call to action from both CalPERS, (the California state pension fund), and the New York City Retirement Systems to dismiss the members of Duke Energy’s Regulatory Policy and Oversight Committee. The four board members of this committee have responsibility for environmental compliance, yet they do not have expertise in that field. Moreover, they have failed to live up to their public responsibilities.
