Duke Energy is the biggest nuclear power company in America. It is also one of the most vocal advocates of an Al Gore-style cap-and-trade scheme for greenhouse gasses, and the company’s CEO, Jim Rogers, thinks the company will profit from cap-and-trade.
That makes it a bit fishy when Rogers pledges to raise $32 million for the 2012 Democratic National Convention — which is, in effect, a four-day pep rally for Obama’s reelection. But even fishier is Rogers’ promise — now set in stone in a contract — to use Duke Energy corporate money to finance the convention.
The Charlotte Observer reports “Duke Energy Corp., whose CEO is leading the fundraising for the Democratic National Convention, is guaranteeing a $10 million line of credit for the event.”
Basically, a commercial bank is offering a $10 million credit card to the DNC, and Duke Energy is promising to pay off the card if the DNC cannot.
That’s right: a nuclear power company, which lobbies for and stands to profit from a major Democratic policy initiative, is using corporate money to finance a major part of Obama’s campaign.
But I should bring up some other stuff about Duke Energy and its relations with government:
- Some in Congress are reacting to the Japan nuclear-plant explosions and meltdowns by calling for a slowdown in the approval of new nuke plants — at the moment Duke has new plants pending.
- There’s a push in Indiana to force Rogers to testify in a corruption probe regarding contacts between Duke officials (including Rogers) and state regulators.
- Rogers has picked up Obama’s “Win The Future” talk. In a recent speech, he offered up nuggets like:
Purpose-driven capitalism is really an old-idea in a new suit. It’s the recognition that business has a role to play in society beyond simply driving shareholder returns. Business serves a wide array of stakeholders, from customers and employees, to business partners, the government, and our communities. And I believe the true value of a business can only be measured in relation to its impact on its wide array of stakeholders, not just earnings per share.
This story — and Duke’s coziness with the Obama adminstration — hasn’t gotten as much attention as I bet it would if it were an oil company and a GOP convention. And huge corporate donations to conventions has long been a gaping loophole in “campaign finance reform” — one that Republicans typically exploit better than Democrats. But still, this is not the “people’s convention” Obama promised — nor the good government he said we all deserved.
