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Duke Energy News Center

U.S. corporate utility PR

Owned byDuke Energy Corporation (NYSE: DUK), a publicly traded Fortune 150 electric utility holding company headquartered in Charlotte, NC; no single controlling shareholder — largest institutional holders include Vanguard Group, BlackRock, and State Street Corp.
FundingOperated entirely as a corporate communications function of Duke Energy Corporation, funded through the company's internal budget; Duke Energy earns revenue through regulated electricity and natural gas sales to approximately 8.6 million electric customers and 1.7 million gas customers across North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida, Indiana, Ohio, and Kentucky.
On the administrationbroadly supportive

Background

Duke Energy's corporate origins date to 1900, when the Catawba Power Company was established to develop hydroelectric capacity along the Catawba River in the Carolinas. Industrialist James B. Duke invested through the Southern Power Company in 1905, and the enterprise was renamed Duke Power in his honor in 1924. A 1997 merger with PanEnergy Corporation created the modern Duke Energy Corporation as a diversified energy company. Further acquisitions of Cinergy Corporation in 2006 and Progress Energy in 2012 made Duke the largest U.S. electric utility by customer count, a status cemented with the 2016 purchase of Piedmont Natural Gas. The News Center at news.duke-energy.com operates as a media relations and investor communications hub, distributing press releases, executive commentary, fact sheets, and video, with an 'Our Perspective' section that publishes advocacy pieces by company leaders. Duke Energy's public image has been shaped significantly by the 2014 Dan River coal ash spill in North Carolina, in which a pipe failure released 39,000 tons of coal ash; the company pleaded guilty to nine criminal Clean Water Act charges and paid $102 million in fines, the largest federal criminal environmental penalty in North Carolina history at the time. Under the Trump administration's second term, Duke Energy has cooperated with the White House's 'Energy Dominance Agenda,' surrendering its offshore wind lease for a $129 million government payment, receiving a $28.4 million federal grant for coal plant upgrades, and asking the EPA in February 2025 to roll back carbon pollution and coal ash rules — all developments the News Center covers favorably from the company's standpoint.

Sources

  1. Duke Energy News Center – Homepage
  2. Duke Energy – Wikipedia
  3. Merger of Progress Energy and Duke Energy created largest U.S. electric utility – U.S. EIA
  4. 2014 Dan River coal ash spill – Wikipedia
  5. Duke Energy asks EPA to roll back carbon pollution and coal ash regulations – WUNC
  6. Trump Pays Duke Energy $129 Million to Kill Offshore Wind – Heatmap News
  7. Trump administration grants Duke Energy $28.4M for NC coal plant – NC Newsline
  8. Duke Energy – History (company website)
  9. Duke Energy – Media Kit

Profile compiled 2026-07-12; refreshed when ownership, funding, or the administration changes.

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