LOD: Duke $$$ to S-10 Sponsors

Greenpeace looked at the campaign money Duke Energy and Progress Energy have donated to the legislative sponsors of the bill to immediately replace all the members of the Utilities Commission and several other regulatory boards with GOP appointee. Seven of the 12 sponsors and co-sponsors received a total of $147,000 from the two utilities in the past several elections, with S-10 lead sponsor Sen. Tom Apodaca pulling in the most – $65,500. The blog posting by Greenpeace has several other valuable links to other dimensions of this unfolding story of an excessive power grab by Republican legislative leaders and Gov. Pat McCrory, himself a former Duke executive. The Charlotte Business Journal has equally fascinating quotes from Duke executives in response to the research; they distance themselves from taking any position on S-10 and call their campaign contributions “routine.”