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Off The Wall
2013 Shareholders - Employee Survey Results - Feb Open Forum - Year 2013
- John H. Mullin III, former Progress director, on the Duke/Progress merger.
"appalling...disgusting...wasteful...possibility of conflicts of interest and corruption"
"continue to generate controversy for Pope and the McCrory administration"
"improperly classified as exempt from overtime requirements"
"twice was awarded judgments of $500,000"
"used his vast fortune to promote...need to cut Social Security and Medicare"
"The state has been aware of the leaks as well as the groundwater pollution for years"
"Duke Energy has begun the repair process"
"The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission wants Duke Energy to explain"
"The decommissioning, if it ever starts, will take decades"
"ALEC is a 98-percent corporate-funded bill mill and 'dating service' "
"Hundreds more supporters remained outside the General Assembly"
"it had the potential for uncontrolled radiation release"
"The gate wouldn't budge. Duke Energy couldn't open it anymore"
"Duke Energy took over the plant after its merger with Raleigh-based Progress Energy"
"Duke Energy said it would evaluate why the problem was missed last year"
"in 2001...mobile calls were not possible above 10,000 feet"
"No information has been released on potential injuries"
"the immigrant advantage wears off with the adoption of American behaviors"
"All of Japan's 50 surviving commercial reactors, except for two...are currently offline"
"claims they manipulated cost for more than a decade"
"being investigated for forcing at least one subordinate soldier into prostitution"
"accusations of improper political activity for criticizing the Bush administration"
"airborne levels of nickel, mercury, lead, chromium, cadmium, beryllium and arsenic"
"U.S. nuclear-power output will have reached a peak a few years ago"
"The leak, however, has the potential to reach groundwater"
"Worker's rights are union rights"
"prevent...collecting union dues from workers"
"Duke Energy would pocket $4 billion...For a natural gas plant: $369 million"
"the only real winner from building nuclear instead of natural gas? Duke Energy"
"federal government...state...declaring an end to South Carolina’s persistent drought"
"creating a workplace that discouraged employees...from raising quality concerns"
"We are with you...We will not move out from this place without rescuing you"
"Jurors Friday awarded $3 million each to the families of the two children"
"That means the measure got 17 votes at most. It needed 18 to pass"
"Social Security has not contributed a dime to the deficit"
"informs employees of their right to join or form a union"
"not including $7 million in stock awards"
"Victims will be allowed to comment on the proposed agreement"
"the woman fended off Krusinski"
"you don’t have a legitimate complaint then, you still have electricity in your home"
"it will take 60 years and hundreds of millions of dollars to decontaminate them"
"officer in charge of sexual assault prevention...arrested and charged with sexual battery"
"Such costs have been highly controversial, touching off...legislative and legal battles"
"The longer it lays out there, the worse it’s going to smell. The tide is going to turn"
"Just don't stand in its way unless you want to be run over"
"pocketing $150 million in profit while consumers have nothing to show for it"
"The U.S. government essentially invented the nuclear industry"
"People are going to be mad that they threw away $70 million on that plant"
"Jim Rogers closed the meeting before everyone had a chance to speak"
"Clean energy opponents turned to dirty tactics this week"
"would fully repeal North Carolina’s renewable portfolio standard"
"What goes on behind closed doors?"
"This is the final shareholders meeting for Duke CEO Jim Rogers"
"Protests...are expected at Thursday’s meeting"
"I go back to the days when Bill Lee ran this company"
"I think those leadership transitions do impact employees. They create questions"
"there is concern that we cannot prevent another accident"
"without a proper order...the rate increase should be suspended"
"Wall Street won't finance the plants"
"the effective interest rates ranged from 27 percent to 106 percent"
"monkeyed with Libor submissions in exchange for a bottle of Bollinger champagne"
"fusion reactors do not produce high-level radioactive waste"
"(EPA) has…authority…to revoke a permit for a mountaintop removal mining"
"North Carolina...slash weekly benefits to the unemployed from $535 to $350"
"it occurred in the Committee chaired by the bill’s own sponsor, Chairman Mike Hager"
"policy of the 1 percent, by the 1 percent, for the 1 percent"
"When the cars work with the grid, they earn about $5 a day"
"wet handling of coal ash was the cheapest easiest option around"
"resigned his position...following allegations of corruption within the department"
"will typically harm seniors more than the rest of the population"
"I'm prepared to cut your benefits"
"shot at the officer and struck the officer's vehicle"
"Duke has redacted large parts of the reports relating to the safety of the coal ash ponds"
"Riverbend’s coal pollution has contaminated the air we breathe and the water we drink"
"companies now free to hide donations through trade associations"
"continued cracking, crazing and spalling as well as increased efflorescence"
"A petition to the S.E.C....has already garnered close to half a million comments"
"North Carolina environmental regulators...took the unusual step of suing Duke Energy"
"Power producers must curb the tainted water they discharge into waterways"
"watering down opposition to a $2.6 billion coal-gasification plant"
"I am sure we will see great hand wringing from industry"
"It’s not a secret that the utilities have an incredible amount of influence up here"
"He says the toxins are coming from four coal ash ponds"
"I am the senator. You are the citizen. You need to be quiet"
"significant number of employee concerns reported to the NRC"
"terminated the Crystal River project, but has kept $150 million of the money in profits"
"the Catawba Riverkeeper filed a notice of intent to file a lawsuit against Duke Energy"
"workers were wrongfully terminated for filing a complaint against the employer"
"putting them on a bus and shipping them back to wherever they came from"
"charged with…slayings of the district attorney…his wife…and another prosecutor"
"Nationwide, 137 sites are contaminated with coal-ash chemicals"
"Injuries hidden to obtain over $2.5 million in safety bonuses"
"Duke instead got a $46 million rebate"
"Are we satisfied with being ranked 40th in the nation in energy efficiency?"
"it is indisputable that the United States engaged in the practice of torture"
" 'amnesty' for immigrants who broke the law"
"American corporations are now sitting on $4.75 trillion in cash"
"Duke is seeking another 9.7 percent rate increase"
"This bill puts an end to nuclear power plants"
"People would be looking to punish them"
"we can’t sit by and let the board make a mockery of our...right to elect directors"
"Advances In Scientific Analysis Of Coal Ash Reveals Dramatically Increased Risks"
"Dozens of companies...including...Duke Energy"
"customer interests cannot be measured only indirectly or treated as mere afterthoughts"
"Pat McCrory appears to be on a privatization spree"
"Duke Energy has benefited from a law...that allows utilities to collect...in advance"
"In 1977 the NRC identified dam failure and flooding as a potential problem at Oconee"
"Social Security represents the best of America values"
"I believe cutting benefits is not the right answer"
"All 104 nuclear power reactors...have a safety problem that cannot be fixed"
"a history of concern dating back to the 40-year-old station’s early years"
"it would ensure that in the future, utilities can't earn profits on such failures"
"Duke stands to earn a $50 million...for the Crystal River plant"
"How lawmakers pay for the tax cuts still remains unclear"
"diplomatic records from the beginning of 1973 to the end of 1976"
"The current system…creates big profits for utilities and contributes to rising…costs"
"prone to heart disease, bone fractures, cancer, diabetes and obesity"
"They don’t get it...The games these people have played...is shameful to say the least"
"the latest in a series of troubles at the crippled facility"
"We were installing wire nets to keep the rats out"
"the 'original sin' of the Southern political class is cheap, powerless labor"
"pattern of political patronage"
"households mistakenly having their power cut off"
"NRC...concluded the risk of catastrophic dam failure was higher than Duke figured"
"the contract you agreed to waived your right to class action as well"
"The lake is a source of drinking water for the city of Charlotte"
"it took a sixth-grader’s school project to bring attention to elevated levels of arsenic"
"they’ll all be elected, even with a single yes vote (which may be their own)"
"his bills plummeted after installing the panels and a wood-fired stove"
"Consumers are realizing 'they don’t need the power industry at all' "
"The inevitable happened: employees began concealing accidents"
"Oscar Francisco Garcia-Fuentes is an illegal immigrant"
"McArthur’s compensation totaled just less than $9 million"
"Duke’s directors also got raises, from $150,000 a year in cash and stock to $200,000"
"This huge cost increase is more justification to pull the plug"
"With this stunning news, it appears that the MOX project is doomed to elimination"
"It took Tepco almost a day to restore cooling to the first of the affected pools"
"customers would be asked to pick up the slack for the industrial customers"
"merger between Progress Energy and Duke Energy came back to haunt Progress"
"would be better served if their power providers abandoned the plans"
"The company will pay more than $350,000 in back wages with interest"
"The commission has declined to dismiss the appeals"
"when it comes to Crystal River, Progress Energy Florida has done little right"
"closing a money-losing reactor and selling coal plants"
"Pat McCrory needs to be Governor for the People, not for Duke Energy"
"Pat McCrory made lifting the fracking moratorium a cornerstone of his campaign"
"You’re basically contaminating an aquifer forever"
"He said Duke officials sanctioned the thefts from day one"
"He was a fireman's fireman"
"there are signs of buyer's remorse"
"When you hit a tree, it's a little late to find out you have a hole in your airbag"
"Nuclear was the least popular energy source on the survey"
"Only 39 percent agreed that there is a high level of trust in the company"
"There is no justice in the American justice system, but you can sometimes find it in a jury"
"Duke’s financial support of Charlotte’s biggest event became a political football"
"If there's anything that's not broken in North Caroilna, it's our Utilities Commission"
"It is not necessary to play the legacy this, legacy that game"
"accused...McCrory of wanting to stack the utilities commission to help line his pockets"
"What is it going to take for you to act in the public interest?"
"I think it's a great investment for our community"
"a lot of the people, procedures and habits remain the same after the recent merger"
"Seldom, if ever, has an attempt to save $15 million cost so many, so much"
"RGA's donor list…Pike Electric, RAI Services/Reynolds Tobacco, Duke Energy"
"power companies too often control the Legislature with giant campaign checks"
"Byrne attacked his neighbour, Fr Thomas Smith, 81"
"North Carolina is already the least-unionized state in the nation"
"This is where ALEC makes things awkward for Duke Energy"
"These ideas were soundly rejected in the last election only a few months ago"
"guilty of assaulting a neighbor's children, now leads the Department of Public Safety"
"Reynolds' lead sponsorship of McCrory's event"
"Pat McCrory...named Pope as his budget director"
"McCrory tapped two other Duke...alumni on Thursday"
"being employed at Duke Energy for 28 years, you have an actual conflict of interest"
"AT&T, Duke Energy, Progress Energy, ElectriCities...and PSNC Energy"
"Employees without union representation are never at the table, but are...on the menu!"
"Boehner's White House F-bomb"
"They (Duke Energy) are so mean. I feel like I’m going to have a nervous breakdown"
"Duke had offered Storms an in-house counsel job—while he was still GC at the commission"
"The plan would raise the Medicare eligibly age to 67"
"Jim Turner, resigned after private email exchanges with Hardy were disclosed"
"With McCrory's election, the road to power was clear"
"Pope...used his fortune to dominate North Carolina politics"
"life as we know it in the Southeast would be at stake"
"Rep. Heath Shuler...is headed to Duke Energy"
"Dam failure with subsequent site inundation, all three Oconee units will go to core damage"
"would give America the potential to challenge the utility monopolies"
"a web of systematic crimes and human rights violations by the Bush-era CIA"
"What I saw at certain moments and in certain places...is very disturbing!"
"a handy link to the lingerie website for the faith-driven consumer to…test his or her faith"
"push for a debt deal that includes cuts in Social Security and Medicare benefits"
"he’ll be working on Duke’s behalf to try to push the utility’s agenda through Congress"
"Williams would not provide Shuler’s salary"
"he won’t be able to directly lobby his former colleagues for a year"
"Shuler was not the best professional quarterback"
"McCrory didn't have to run negative ads...outside attack groups did it for him"
"The smiling, round Kibitan explains why radiation is dangerous"
"Rogers and his wife donated $6,000 to McCrory’s campaign for governor"
"McCrory has been a vocal proponent of fracking"
"Employees…retaliated against…may file a complaint with the secretary of labor"
"seeking the job with Duke while…overseeing Duke cases"
"felony charges surrounding his oversight of Duke Energy’s power plant"
"The utilities have owned the Public Service Commission for years"
"Oconee...operated by Duke Energy, would suffer almost certain core damage"
"Remember Jim Turner?"
"the first evidence that asbestos causes cancer emerged in the 1930s"
"Wall Street financiers of nuclear power plants won't touch such projects"
"Flashback: The US was fine with Iran building nuclear power plants"
"Shehan said the public didn’t get what it was promised"
"A large portion of...entitlement spending...ends up in the pockets of corporations"
"Manoochehr Nazar…allegedly ordered him to continue starting up the plant anyway"
"vulnerability at one plant in particular -- the three-reactor Oconee Nuclear Station"
"please consider this allegation to be public information"
"will not be eligible for health insurance coverage"
"more than 11 hours of work a day raised heart disease risks by 67 percent"
"The worker was fired the next day and subjected to verbal threats and legal action"
"Senator Chuck Schumer…'I'd urge [Duke] to leave ALEC ASAP... if not sooner!' "
"Duke Energy has had extremely close ties with ALEC"
"Laws that protect workers from abusive employers, unsafe conditions, and destitution"
"We tortured people unmercifully. We probably murdered dozens"
"he and another team member then shot him several more times in the chest"
"overwhelming proof that Rachel was deliberately murdered"
"familiarity has helped foster access at the upper reaches of government"
"Free speech isn’t a vague concept"
"this corporate coup is an end-run around the electorate"
"Federal law prohibits employers from knowingly hiring illegal workers"
"discussed a position with Duke while presiding over hearings concerning the utility"
"Duke Merger"
"Duke Merger Testimony"
"this is not a decision that I either initiated or advocated"
"Released by sources like diesel trucks and power plants"
"whoever reveals the hideout of the old woman Hillary Clinton will be rewarded 10 chickens"
"Mr. President, why do you favor foreign workers over Americans?"
"McCrory has embraced a far-right conspiracy theory"
"the more a miner was exposed to diesel, the greater his cancer risk"
"Duke's payments to the companies totaled at least $22 million a year"
"the judge incorrectly ruled that federal courts had no jurisdiction"
"argues McCrory has been coy about his work at Duke Energy"
"North Carolina Chamber, Duke Energy...Manufacturers and Chemical Industry Council"
"Progress Energy, Duke Energy"
"there is a greater risk of groundwater contamination from oil and gas"
"According to the court, illegal immigrants can be prohibited from owning guns"
"Stop me if you've heard this one"
"They are charging people every month for nothing"
"a closed world of concealment, cronyism and corruption"
"We're tainted"
"They include Duke Energy and Progress Energy"
"shifting to 100 percent clean energy"
"plant owners had hidden their knowledge of the toxicity of asbestos"
"Hardy was fired by Gov. Mitch Daniels in October 2010, and Turner resigned"
"Duke admitted that much of the material was not confidential"
"the public now knows of a private club of cronyism between Duke and the IURC"
"Here are the major stories, in chronological order"
"key aspects of the Edwardsport project have been shrouded in secrecy"
"Duke Energy always rewards it creepy disgraced executives it seems"
"Without such criteria, claiming that any power plant is 'capture ready' is a scam"
"Democratic administration has, in turn, been very good to Duke Energy"
"spent more than $26 million lobbying the federal government...since 2007"
"Duke Energy got $230 million and they generated 196 jobs"
" 'Band-Aid fix' for the design that failed 'not once, not twice, but three times' "
"These plants are...McGuire 1 and 2"
"America's nuclear weapons budget is locked into a Cold War time machine"
"200 deaths, 300 heart attacks, and over 3,000 asthma attacks
"Stone-Webster guilty of racketeering and fraud...$4-billion judgement"
"if you are a power company, you are exempt from the racketeering laws"
against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places."