Shareholders, protesters, speak out to Duke (Energy) board
Source: AP-Excite
By MITCH WEISS
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) Duke Energy's chief executive on Thursday touted the company's accomplishments over the past year, but some shareholders focused on a massive coal ash spill that coated 70-miles of a North Carolina River in toxic sludge.
Outside Duke's headquarters, where investors gathered for the annual shareholders meeting, about 200 protesters criticized the spill, and the way the $50 billion company has handled the coal ash issue.
Duke has 14-coal fired plants with 33 ash pits spread across the state.
The Rev. William Barber, president of the North Carolina chapter of the NAACP, told the protesters many of the pits are located in rural areas around minority communities.
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Concern citizens, Kendell Hale, dressed as Lady Liberty, and her husband Steve Norris from Asheville, N.C. demonstrate with other protesters in front of the Duke Energy office building, Thursday, May 1, 2014, as shareholders hold their annual meeting in Charlotte, N.C. Some Duke Energy investors plan to push the utility's board of directors to investigate issues surrounding a massive coal ash spill that dumped toxic sludge into a 70-mile stretch of a North Carolina river. (AP Photo/The Charlotte Observer, T. Ortega Gaines) MAGS OUT; TV OUT; NEWSPAPER INTERNET ONLY (REV-SHARE)