RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — North Carolina’s attorney general says he’ll challenge an electricity rate increase taking effect Saturday that will cost the average home an extra $88 a year.
Attorney General Roy Cooper said Friday he’ll fight a North Carolina Utilities Commission decision that requires about 1.3 million customers of the former Progress Energy to pay an extra $326 million over the next two years.
The electricity provider for much of eastern North Carolina and Asheville is now a subsidiary of Charlotte-based Duke Energy, the country’s largest electricity company. Duke Energy defended the rate increase but did not respond to Cooper’s statement.
The rate increase state regulators approved Thursday allows Duke Energy Progress a 10 percent profit margin as it recovers some of the $11 billion invested since the last rate increase in 1987.
