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As Heatwave Cooks US, 150+ Groups Urge Leaders to Ban Deadly Utility Shutoffs
"Millions of lives are at risk this week as extreme heat scorches our country," said one campaigner. "Trump and his billionaire buddies will have blood on their hands."
Jun 24, 2025
With extreme temperatures fueled by human-caused global heating gripping much of the United States, a coalition of more than 150 advocacy groups on Tuesday urged federal, state, and local elected leaders to ban potentially deadly utility disconnections, increase worker protections, and tax polluters to finance renewable energy.
The Center for Biological Diversity (CBD) led two letters—one to Democratic congressional leaders and another to governors and mayors—arguing that U.S. President Donald Trump "has put millions of lives at risk by dismantling federal agencies and lifesaving programs that help working families keep their homes cool and survive deadly heatwaves like the one this week."
"Since taking office Trump has stripped Americans of access to lifesaving measures, including the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program and Low-Income Household Water Assistance Program, which help more than 8 million working families pay their utility bills," CBD noted.
"Every day of extreme heat in the United States claims about 154 lives."
The Trump administration has also laid off staff at the Federal Emergency Management Agency, "crippling the agency's ability to help communities before and after disaster strikes. And the country's first-ever proposed federal heat standard, which would prevent heat-related illness and injury in workplaces, is stalled after staff cuts at the Occupational Safety and Health Administration."
CBD said that extreme heat is the deadliest weather-related phenomenon, "claiming more lives each year than hurricanes, tornadoes, and floods combined."
"Every day of extreme heat in the United States claims about 154 lives," the group added. "In the past seven years there has been a nearly 17% increase each year in heat-related deaths. Among those most harmed by extreme heat are outdoor workers and children."
The diverse groups signing the letter—which include Climate Justice Alliance, Food & Water Watch, Free Press Action, Friends of the Earth U.S., Sunrise Movement, and Utility Workers Union of America—centered the voices of people who are most vulnerable to exposure to extreme heat, including outdoor workers like José, a Florida roofer.
"I've felt dizzy, weak, unable to breathe, with cramps, and my heart beats very fast, desperate," the 24-year-old said. "The heat suffocates me and many times I've been close to going to the hospital. While working on the roofs, it feels like the heat is over 110°F or 115°F and we only take one or two short breaks. I need this work to survive, but as the summers get hotter, I worry that one day I will collapse."
CBD senior attorney and energy justice program director Jean Su said in a statement Tuesday that "millions of lives are at risk this week as extreme heat scorches our country. Trump and his billionaire buddies will have blood on their hands."
"Corporations are taking advantage of working people and stripping them of access to lifesaving utilities, clean water, and a safe and resilient future," Su added. "Congress and especially state leaders must deliver emergency relief and tax greedy polluters who are endangering our lives and the climate. Everyone deserves heat-resilient homes, schools, and workplaces."
Will Humble, executive director of letter signatory Arizona Public Health Association, said: "We're not asking for the moon here. We're just looking for state and federal officials to help keep people alive during the summertime."
"Heat kills as many people in Arizona as influenza and pneumonia, and every one of those heat deaths is preventable," Humble added. "The least our elected officials can do is make sure people have places of refuge from these deadly fossil fuel-driven heatwaves. We also need stronger limits on summertime electricity shutoffs, so people aren't dying because the utility company has turned off their power."
"We're just looking for state and federal officials to help keep people alive during the summertime."
Last week, Oregon became the latest of more than two dozen states to ban power disconnections during high summer heat. However, as CBD and others have noted, utilities still find ways to shut off utilities during hot periods.
Six major investor-owned utilities—Georgia Power, DTE Energy, Duke Energy, Ameren Corporation, Pacific Gas & Electric, and Arizona Public Service—"shut off power to households at least 400,000 times during the summertime," according to a CBD report published in January. Those six utilities raked in $10 billion in profits while collectively hiking their customers' rates by at least $3.5 billion since 2023.
"Mayors and governors must act now with bold, local solutions, including expanded public transit and community-centered strategies like neighborhood cooling hubs," Climate Justice Alliance executive director KD Chavez said in a statement. "We also urge stronger labor protections, including municipal and state-level heat standards, to protect postal workers, farmworkers, and all outdoor workers who are increasingly exposed to deadly heat without adequate safeguards."
"Extreme heat has been endangering communities across the country," Chavez added. "We're feeling it closely this week and know it will only get worse. Our growing dependence on aging buildings, air conditioning and a fragile, fossil fuel-dependent power grid is putting lives at risk, especially in frontline, low-income neighborhoods and U.S. territories without government representation."
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Small Town Sues Utility for Climate Deception
"We have to speak truth to power as we continue to fight the existential threat that is climate change," said the mayor of Carrboro, North Carolina.
Dec 04, 2024
The town of Carrboro, North Carolina filed a lawsuit Wednesday accusing the utility company Duke Energy of carrying out a "knowing deception campaign concerning the causes and dangers posed by the climate crisis."
The municipality—which is near Chapel Hill and is after compensation for damages it has suffered or will suffer as a result of the alleged deception campaign—is the first town in the United States to challenge an electric utility for public deception about the dangers of fossil fuels and seek damages for the harms those emissions have created, according to the town's mayor, Barbara Foushee.
The case was filed in North Carolina Superior Court and argues that Duke Energy has engaged in a "greenwashing" campaign to convince the public it sought to address the climate emergency.
"In reliance upon these misrepresentations, the public has continued to conduct business with Duke under the mistaken belief that the company is committed to renewable energy," according to the filing.
"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," said Foushee, according to a press release.
Mayor Pro Tem Danny Nowell added that "it's time for us to hold Duke Energy accountable for decades of deception, padding executives' pockets while towns like ours worked to mitigate the harmful effects of climate change. This suit will allow the Town of Carrboro to invest new resources into building a stronger, more climate-resilient community, using the damages justly due to our residents to reimagine the ways we prepare for our climate reality."
According to the lawsuit, Carrboro will be forced to spend millions of dollars either repairing or shoring up public infrastructure as a result of more frequent and devastating storms, which scientists agree are caused by climate change.
The complaint comes not long after the release of a report, Duke Energy Knew: Documenting the Utility’s Early Knowledge and Ongoing Deception About Climate Change, from the Energy and Policy Institute, a watchdog group. According to the report, Duke Energy well understood the risks posed by burning fossil fuels as far back as the 1960s, but chose to take part in promoting disinformation about climate science. In more recent years, the utility continued to pursue fossil fuels while blocking renewable energy development, according to the report's authors. Much of this research is referenced in the lawsuit.
As one example of its "deception," the lawsuit points to Duke Energy's participation in the the Global Climate Coalition, an entity created with the intent of opposing action to curb the climate crisis.
Duke Energy was the third largest emitter of greenhouse gasses in 2021, according to a breakdown from the Political Economy Research Institute at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, which ranked U.S. companies in terms of their CO2-equivalent greenhouse gas emissions.
More than 20 states, tribes, cities, and counties have brought similar climate deception lawsuits. Maine, for example, recently became the ninth state to sue a major oil and gas company for deceiving the public about its products' role in the climate crisis.
"We’ll soon have a climate denier-in-chief in the White House, but Carrboro is a shining light in this darkness, taking on one of the country's largest polluters and climate deceivers," Jean Su, energy justice director at the Center for Biological Diversity, said in a press release. The Center for Biological Diversity is advising on the case.
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As Coal Ash Spews Into N.C. River, More 'Ticking Time Bombs' Threaten
One of largest such spills in U.S. history shines light on 'high-risk' unregulated coal ash dumping grounds near waterways
Feb 06, 2014
As a busted pipe at a Duke Energy power plant continues to leak arsenic and lead-laden coal ash into the Dan River that flows through North Carolina and Virginia, residents are demanding that energy giants stop pumping their waterways with poison.
"Any coal ash dump next to a river or lake is a ticking time bomb, and Duke has lost all credibility when it says it's responsible to hold the fuse," Greenpeace Charlotte organizer Monica Embrey said while protesting outside of Duke Energy's headquarters in Charlotte, North Carolina on Thursday along with dozens others. "Duke should clean up its mess in the Dan River and make sure that Charlotte isn't next."
"This could have been avoided. The Environmental Protection Agency has dragged its feet on the issue of coal ash for more than five years," said Matt Wasson, director of programs for Appalachian Voices, in an interview with Common Dreams. "We've been warning about this, commenting to the EPA in public comment periods, and talking to the press."
Duke Energy is still scrambling to repair the leak in a storm pipe at the bottom of a 27-acre coal ash pond. Duke Energy spokesperson Meghan Musgrave told Bloomberg on Tuesday that an estimated 10 percent of the pond's 992,000 tons of ash ( 99,200 tons) have spilled into the Dan River.
Yet Kerul Dyer of Rainforest Action Network told Common Dreams, "There is no way of knowing exactly how much has spilled already because the monitoring by Duke Energy is inadequate."
The coal ash had been stored at the Dan River Steam Station in Rockingham County, North Carolina, which was retired in 2012 and is now a dumping ground for residue left behind by burned coal. While the spill occurred Sunday, the company waited until Monday to publicly announce what appears to be the third largest coal ash spill in U.S. history.
"Here in North Carolina alone, we have 14 coal-fired power plants, each of which has one or more of these unlined, outdated coal ash impoundments," said Wasson. "And every one of these is unlined and built with really shoddy construction standards. We've known that a toxic material like coal ash has to be taken out of these."
The Sierra Club charges that, while big coal ash spills attract media attention, "dangerous contaminants are quietly seeping from coal ash dumps into groundwater supplies across the country or blowing into the air of communities, exposing people and wildlife to toxic substances."
Kara Dodson of Appalachian Voices previously told Common Dreams there is evidence that local residents were already getting sick from leaks and contamination from Duke Energy's ash dumping ground.
Coal ash is known to contain a toxic cocktail of dangerous heavy metals, including arsenic, mercury, lead, and boron. According to the EPA's own estimates, the ash spilled into the Dan River contained over 7,000 pounds of arsenic.
Eye witnesses say the ash has transformed the river into an unnatural gray sludge.
"Two miles downstream, the river is completely opaque, cloudy with this really unnatural ashen gray color, dark and milky," said Wasson. "If you scooped from the sediment from the bottom, all you get is coal ash. It appeared to me that entire bottom of river was covered in 6 to 12 inches of coal ash."
"We are also taking samples 20 miles downstream," he added. "One of our staff people last night said the thickness of ash on bottom is increasing a lot. It's like a lava flow of toxic material moving downstream at slow but steady pace."
According to the Environmental Protection Agency, there are 676 coal ash containment units at 240 facilities in the United States. Forty-five of the units are considered "high hazard," including ten Duke Energy units in North Carolina.
While the EPA floated the idea of regulating coal ash in 2010, it has dragged its feet and to date has released no rules regulating the dangerous residue. This is in part due to pressure from coal and utility companies. In 2009, Duke Energy lobbyist Bill Tyndall personally lobbied the Obama administration against regulating coal ash ponds, according to documents and statements highlighted by Greenpeace.
Environmental groups say the ability of coal companies to dispose of dangerous ash with no regulation highlights the danger, and power, of this industry. "The coal ash waste problem is widespread," said Dyer. It is another high risk factor in the coal industry overall."
Unedited footage of the spill in the Dan River can be seen below:
Eden, NC Coal Ash Spill - UNEDITED FOOTAGEDuke Energy said that 50000 to 82000 tons of coal ash and up to 27 million gallons of water were released from a pond at its ...
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