Now that it’s been exposed to close scrutiny and serious pushback, the environmental, social, and governance, or ESG , facade is cracking. This month, S&P Global dropped the use of ESG scores to assess corporate borrowers. The architect of ESG, BlackRock CEO Larry Fink, recently admitted the term has become politically and financially unpopular. And as if on cue, references to ESG — a scheme to impose leftist ideology without the consent of voters, government, or investors — vanished from the McDonald’s website.

While ESG may be in retreat, those pushing the "woke" business practices will not surrender without a fight. Charlotte-based Duke Energy, a company providing utilities for 8.2 million customers in North and South Carolina, Florida, Indiana, Ohio, and Kentucky, serves as a case in point.

The utility monopoly has increasingly pledged its commitment to ESG, including environmental extremists’ objective of net-zero electricity generation by 2050 and net-zero methane emissions by 2030. Duke goes so far as to brag in its ESG report that it lobbied North Carolina to codify its net zero goals into law. The company also intends to impose its net-zero ambitions on upstream and downstream suppliers. Lynn J. Good , chairwoman, president, and CEO of Duke Energy, has stated that the company’s entire business strategy is focused on how to achieve carbon reduction.

Duke is so maniacally obsessed with net-zero targets that executive pay is tied to ESG goals . Good’s pay jumped to $21.35 million in 2022, almost 30% more than her $16.45 million total for 2021. Other senior executives also saw dramatic pay boosts.

Duke’s ESG fanaticism serves as a distraction from its environmental disasters. Just last year, it lost a bid to fleece Indiana customers of $212 million to finance a cleanup of coal ash that contaminated local groundwater. Federal prosecutors filed criminal charges against Duke in 2015 for illegally dumping millions of gallons of toxic coal ash into North Carolina’s Dan River.

Prioritizing ESG above customer interests is an irresponsible course for a public utility. By Duke’s own admission , the technology to meet net zero doesn’t even exist, and on Christmas Eve 2022, Duke Energy initiated rolling blackouts in North Carolina after failing to prepare for cold-weather energy usage properly. Their reckless path toward unreliable wind and solar energy sources guarantees more frequent blackouts.

Duke’s commitment to higher-priced green energy guarantees utility price hikes in perpetuity, which have already begun. Duke Energy has consistently and significantly raised rates on consumers in recent years. For example, in Ohio, ratepayers were hit on June 1, 2023, with a 58% increase in the generation fee portion of their bill. In North Carolina, effective June 1, 2023, Duke raised rates on some residential customers by 4.8% . Watchdogs across the political spectrum have called the rate increases excessive, particularly after the company reported $2.56 billion in profit last year.

Duke admits that recent rate increases on consumers are partially the result of the company’s expenditures on “green” technologies, and Duke is just getting warmed up. It is warning customers to expect more rake hikes soon. Over the next decade, Duke intends to spend an additional $145 billion on green energy infrastructure and its pursuit of the so-called net-zero transition. This money won’t be coming from Good’s salary. It will be paid for by Duke customers. By late 2025, Duke expects North Carolina customers will see their bills increase by 18.7% .

If raising rates to hit unnecessary ESG targets wasn’t enough, Duke is also planning to force customers to subsidize the building of expensive electric vehicle charging stations that mainly service their highest-income customers. Duke unveiled plans to build 760 of these stations at a cost of $76 million. Duke wrote in its recent rate application that “the Companies intend to recover the costs of their ET Pilot through their respective base rates,” meaning that single mothers, fixed-income retirees, and every other Duke customer will be paying to increase convenience for the EV buyers.

Duke’s monopoly power means that there is little escape from its ESG madness. Its customers have no recourse regarding the company’s runaway costs, controversial business practices, or extreme politics .

Good has set up a sweetheart deal for herself and her C-suite cohort. By aligning executives’ pay scale to ESG targets rather than servicing customers, she has incentivized Duke to spend more money on wasteful projects and simply pass the costs along to customers. North Carolina citizens lose while Good and Duke shareholders laugh all the way to the bank.

The North Carolina Utilities Commission needs to stand up and put an end to Duke’s scam.

Will Hild is the executive director of Consumers’ Research , the nation’s oldest consumer protection organization.