A leading consumer group launched a campaign Thursday against North Carolina-based utility provider Duke Energy for what it claims is the company’s prioritization of so-called “woke” policies that come at the expense of consumer costs.

The group, Consumers' Research, outlined its concerns in a new letter to the North Carolina Utilities Commission and takes aim at the company’s so-called “climate agenda,” which they say is driving up utility prices for residents in the state.

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"As the nation’s oldest consumer protection organization, Consumers’ Research’s purpose is to educate consumers on issues that impact them and amplify their voice in the marketplace," Consumers’ Research director, Will Hild, said in the letter.

"It is for this reason that we implore the commission to put an end to the abuse of North Carolina consumers by Duke Energy," he said.

Duke Energy “has admitted (and even bragged about) the fact that they are increasing prices on American families to fund their ESG To-Do List,” Hild posted Thursday on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, announcing the new campaign.

The campaign seeks to target customers of Duke Energy, the Charlotte-based utility provider that services roughly 2.8 million residents in the state.

It will deploy mobile billboards critical of the company’s efforts to cell phone users both in the Charlotte area, as well as in Los Angeles, where W. Roy Dunbar is slated to give a speech Friday on the “impact of ESG on business success.”

The group also launched a website taking aim at Duke Energy’s so-called “climate agenda” and increasing awareness about the company’s environmental, social, and governance, or ESG, initiatives, which they say are substantially driving up utility prices for residents in the state.

In an interview with the Washington Examiner, Hild noted that Duke Energy plans to increase consumer costs by nearly 20% over the next three years — something he says is directly the result of the new ESG policies, which include retiring fossil fuel plants earlier than expected, and installing a network of EV chargers across the state.

“Part of the reasons they are raising the rates is the early retirement of some of their coal and natural gas plants that would otherwise have a longer shelf life,” he said.

Hild also pointed to a March interview in which Duke Energy’s CEO Lynn Good described fighting climate change and reducing carbon emissions as the fundamental core of their business model, which he strongly objected to.

“Their business model should be delivering affordable energy and reliable energy for their consumers,” Hild said of the interview. “And it says something that the CEO sees that as the core of their mission, rather than focusing [primarily] on consumers.”

Thursday's new campaign is part of a broader effort spearheaded by Consumers’ Research to publicly call out companies and investment firms that have embraced so-called “woke” policies at the expense of consumers.

The nonprofit group first gained headlines in 2021 for targeting BlackRock and Bank of America’s ESG policies.

But this is the first time the company has targeted a utility provider.

"Perhaps the most abusive use of Duke’s resources has been their political advocacy of anti-consumer ‘net zero’ policies which they boast about supporting at both the national and state level," Hild wrote Thursday.

"It is a clear conflict of interest for Duke Energy to expend company resources supporting the enactment of policies that increase costs for Duke at the same time they ask those costs to be passed on to their customers in the form of rate hikes," he added.

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Duke Energy declined to comment.