Conservative policymakers pride themselves on defending hardworking North Carolinians’ pocketbooks, championing free-market principles, and ensuring a reliable, competitive energy marketplace. Yet recent fuel cost-sharing laws have produced an outcome that leaves everyday consumers bearing volatile fuel costs without meaningful relief, and that should concern legislators across the political spectrum.
Last week, the North Carolina Court of Appeals found that the Utilities Commission improperly allowed Duke Energy to recover more than $17 million in fuel costs from customers that were incurred outside the statutory one-year review window. The ruling reversed the Commission’s fuel rider orders because they exceeded the statutory test period for cost recovery. But in a twist that highlights a policy flaw, the court declined to order refunds for customers, citing a 2025 statutory amendment that now permits utilities to recoup older fuel costs in future proceedings anyway. As a result, customers who were charged improperly will likely never see direct reimbursement.
This episode illustrates two key problems with how North Carolina currently handles fuel cost recovery:
- Consumers are still on the hook for volatile fuel prices.
Fuel riders are meant to pass through fuel costs that utilities incur, which are not profit centers for electricity providers. However, state law revisions have given utilities broader authority to shift costs across multiple years and potentially multiple customer classes. In practice, this exposes households and small businesses to fuel price fluctuations driven by global markets. For example, analysts have noted that recent spikes in natural gas prices can add hundreds of dollars to a family’s electric bill over a couple of years. - The legal framework now discourages clear accountability.
Consumers went to court seeking refunds precisely because regulators exceeded their statutory authority. Yet a late-breaking law patched that statutory hole after the fact; not before these cost recovery practices were allowed – effectively insulating utilities from having to refund customers who were overcharged. The court’s decision not to order refunds underscores how legislative fixes applied retroactively can leave consumers without meaningful relief.
At a time when many North Carolina families are coming off a cold winter and absorbing higher monthly power bills, they deserve certainty, not excessive exposure to unpredictable fuel costs. It’s time for lawmakers to revisit current laws with three principles in mind:
- Protect consumers from unpredictable price swings. Fuel price volatility should be managed, not socialized across residential and small business customers.
• Ensure transparency and accountability in cost recovery. When regulators or utilities make mistakes, customers should receive fair compensation, full stop.
• Promote competitive energy markets. A framework that rewards innovation, cost control, and diversified generation sources will put downward pressure on prices and reduce exposure to a single fuel or provider.
Conservatives in the General Assembly have an opportunity here to advance policies that improve infrastructure reliability, unleash market forces, and protect ratepayers. This moment provides an opportunity to ensure that energy laws truly serve North Carolina families rather than shield utilities from accountability.
Legislative attention to this issue, grounded in free-market discipline and consumer protection, can strengthen our energy system and restore public confidence in how fuel costs are shared. Today’s ruling should serve as a wake up call: North Carolina must fix policies that leave consumers at a loss and design a market-oriented approach that puts North Carolinians first.
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Thomas Shumaker, is executive director of North Carolina Conservatives for Clean Energy. He has a background in Agricultural Life Sciences and Business Management from NC State University and a Master’s in Extension Studies from Harvard, he has applied data-driven strategies to influence policy and business development. His work has spanned political campaigns, clean energy consulting, and advanced environmental research. To learn more about CCE-NC click HERE.