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People’s Power Campaign for a Solar Bond

Whereas, the climate crisis necessitates a rapid transition to renewable energy.

Whereas, the climate crisis necessitates aggregate reductions in our society’s energy use and total material throughput, especially in the most destructive and wasteful sectors of production and consumption (e.g., automobile manufacturing, chemical manufacturing, plastics, electronics, artificial intelligence data centers, cryptocurrency mining, jet manufacturing, and weapons manufacturing).1

Whereas, Duke Energy exploits working class people, with disproportionate impacts on Black and Indigenous people, throughout North Carolina with excessive electricity bills.2

Whereas, Duke Energy degrades the land, water, and air with its disastrous use of fossil fuels (particularly but not exclusively coal and fossil gas) and coal ash dumps,3 with one analysis identifying Duke Energy as one of the largest greenhouse gas polluters in the US.4

Whereas, Duke Energy systemically subverts democracy and popular will across North Carolina with influence spending, and has a history of charging ratepayers for these activities and others like them that go directly against the interest of their customers, the public, and the environment, with one analysis estimating that Duke Energy spends approximately $80 million annually in the Carolinas to curry favor, distort its corporate record, and mute criticism of its massive fossil gas expansion.5

Whereas, a corrupt nexus has long existed between Duke Energy and the North Carolina General Assembly, resulting in ongoing efforts to push back Duke Energy’s emissions reductions deadlines.6

Whereas, a prior stated goal of the Triangle Democratic Socialists of America’s (TDSA) Ecosocialism Working Group (ESWG) is to “Campaign to end Duke Energy’s regulatory capture of local and state governments to make public power feasible, possibly through wider state-level action” and to “Support the organizing of public power initiatives in the Triangle.”7

Whereas, control of the means of electricity generation, transmission, and distribution is a key arena of class struggle, and socialized ownership could enable and enhance the efficacy of the class struggle in general through the control of infrastructure critical to the reproduction of capitalism.8

Whereas, a public power system could democratically govern electricity flows and infrastructures as commons and provide lower-cost electricity as a universal public service for what is democratically agreed upon to be socially necessary and socially desirable, generated exclusively from renewable sources.9

Whereas, millions of people in North Carolina already benefit from membership in the Tennessee Valley Authority, electric cooperatives, and publicly owned municipal electric utilities, albeit with varying degrees of genuine democratic participation.10

Whereas, a mass movement to shut down fossil fuel plants and to establish a comprehensive, genuinely democratic, and robustly planned public power system at all scales is necessary to achieve a complete, swift, and just energy transition in North Carolina, and to build towards and/or with similar national-scale action.

Whereas, a campaign for a solar bond, defined here as a municipality and/or county issuing a bond (borrowing money) to put solar generation facilities on or near public buildings such as schools, municipal buildings, public housing, and parking lots is a promising starting point for building this mass movement locally.

Whereas, a campaign for a solar bond is a promising starting point for five main reasons. First, it would provide time to build capacity and public presence while pursuing an achievable local objective. Second, it would advance the goal of public power by increasing the amount of publicly owned renewable generation capacity. Third, it would play a role in creating a more distributed and hence climate-resilient grid.11 Fourth, it would advance public power in the public’s consciousness and create opportunities to bring community members into future efforts, as majority popular support is required for the bond to pass. Fifth, a solar bond could save municipalities money over the long term by lowering electricity costs, which could allow some resources to be reinvested into other public services and/or better wages for public workers.

Context Statement

The campaign for a solar bond described herein is intended to be the first phase of an ongoing series of campaigns that the ESWG or successor bodies would advance in the coming years, subject to general body approval upon the conclusion of this campaign. It is the intention of the ESWG that this campaign will help prepare TDSA to carry out more ambitious campaigns to shut down fossil fuel generation and expand/radically reform public power systems to challenge Duke Energy and their reactionary bedfellows statewide (for example, Duke Energy’s allies in the North Carolina General Assembly). The ESWG has also drafted and internally approved energy policies that could be incorporated as part of TDSA’s platform at a future date, subject to further deliberation.

Resolved Statements

Therefore be it resolved, that the ESWG will, in coordination with the Electoral Working Group and any other affiliated groups within the chapter, carry out a “People’s Power Campaign for a Solar Bond.” The objective of this campaign is to secure a solar bond on the ballot in at least one municipality and/or county in the Triangle region by or during 2027 and to ensure that this solar bond passes and is implemented according to the spirit of this proposal. An additional objective of this campaign is to build the capacity, public presence, and mass base of TDSA through the campaign’s organizing efforts and outreach.

Resolved, that the solar bond campaign will involve two phases: a preparatory phase (pre-bond on ballot) and an advanced phase (bond on ballot), during which appropriate tactics will be utilized in accordance with that phase, described in the work plan. In the best-case scenario, recruitment efforts and coalition work during the first 1-3 months of the campaign will enable serious parallel campaigns in Carrboro, Chapel Hill, Durham, and Raleigh, and even at the county level in Orange, Wake, and Durham counties. However, if parallel efforts prove over-ambitious, then the committee will select one or more of the most promising municipalities in which to focus its efforts to pass a solar bond.

Resolved, that during the course of the campaign, TDSA members involved in the campaign are authorized to devote excess campaign capacity to agitating for the closure of fossil fuel power plants and for a public power system. Agitational efforts are intended to lay a foundation for the aforementioned more ambitious campaigns that may be carried out in subsequent years with chapter approval, and will achieve this by raising mass consciousness around these issues and recruiting interested persons to the campaign, the ESWG or successor bodies, and to TDSA. Agitation around shutting down fossil fuel generation is self-explanatory. Agitation for a public power system is understood here to include diverse, complementary approaches: the formation of democratic municipal electric utilities, the formation of public power districts, transformative reforms to existing electric cooperatives, and the formation of regional power authorities. See appendices for further details on what each of these policies could entail.

Resolved, that in alignment with the Boycott Divestment and Sanction (BDS) movement and in solidarity with the Palestinian people, the inverters (and other components) for these systems should not be purchased from SolarEdge, or any other company which is based in occupied Palestine.

Resolved, that a “Campaign for a Solar Bond Committee” will be established to facilitate this campaign, composed of any TDSA member in good standing who wishes to participate. The campaign will make decisions in a democratic manner, will use Robert’s Rules of Order in meetings where decisions are being made, and will elect leadership positions in accordance with chapter bylaws. Campaign roles will include: 2 campaign co-chairs that will primarily preside over meetings and coordinate day-to-day operations; 2 campaign secretaries that will primarily maintain agendas, minutes, and records such as lists of campaign members as well as function as pro-tem co-chairs if necessary; and a general body of campaign members that will participate in planning, strategizing, and completing campaign actions. Other formal committee roles may be created by the committee, and further details on the structure and duties of this committee may be found in the work plan.

Resolved, that the charter of the ESWG or successor bodies will be formally expanded, that is to say that the ESWG or successor bodies are authorized to take reasonable actions to achieve the goals described in this proposal. Efforts may include meeting with elected leaders, organizing protests, speaking up in public forums, canvassing working class neighborhoods, engaging with the public through collaborative feedback sessions as well as agitation and political education, facilitating/organizing campus worker strikes, and forming coalitions with organizations that may include but are not limited to 7 Directions of Service, North Carolina Poor People’s Campaign, NoSSEP, NC WARN, Sunrise Movement, Appalachian Voices, People’s Power NC, North Carolina Environmental Justice Network, UE150, IBEW, Electricities of North Carolina, and NC Electric Cooperatives.

Resolved, that the campaign committee will provide progress updates to the chapter and the steering committee at certain intervals. These progress updates should also serve as focused time to reflect upon the campaign so far, what has been learned, and to adjust strategy and tactics as necessary. The first regular progress update will occur after the initial 1-3 months of the preparatory phase. The second regular progress update will occur at the end of the preparatory phase. Subsequent progress updates will occur at an interval determined by future deliberation to be appropriate to the needs of the advanced phase of the campaign. The steering committee may request ad-hoc progress updates of any sort outside of these windows.

Please see attached work plan for details on campaign organization, strategy, and tactics, and see appendices for additional information on public power, including policies, general history, and DSA’s past and present involvement in public power campaigns.

  1. See Slow Down: The Degrowth Manifesto by Kohei Saito, Marx in the Anthropocene: Towards the Idea of Degrowth Communism by Kohei Saito, Less is More: How Degrowth will Save the World by Jason Hickel, Burning Up: A Global History of Fossil Fuel Consumption by Simon Pirani, Fossil Capital: The Rise of Steam Power and the Roots of Global Warming by Andreas Malm, Energy and Civilization: A History by Vaclav Smil, Carbon Sovereignty: Coal, Development and Energy Transition in the Navajo Nation by Andrew Curley, The Invasion of Indian Country in the 20th Century: American Capitalism and Tribal Natural Resources by Donald Fixico, and Our History is the Future: Standing Rock versus the Dakota Access Pipeline and the Long Tradition of Indigenous Resistance by Nick Estes, etc. ↩

  2. https://ncnewsline.com/2025/03/13/duke-energys-continued-reliance-on-gas-keeps-nc-ratepayers-on-a-rate-hike-roller-coaster/. Also see https://docs.google.com/document/d/1M1BAjvArU7Vn5n8LwbjhGUrUlty3baOlSn6LfGOQMu0/edit?tab=t.0 for additional research by the ESWG on Duke’s rate setting practices and the disproportionate impacts of these on specific groups. ↩

  3. https://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/21/us/duke-energy-is-charged-in-huge-coal-ash-leak.html ↩

  4. https://peri.umass.edu/index-edition/combined-toxic-100-greenhouse-100-indexes-2021-report-based-on-2019-data/ ↩

  5. https://www.ncwarn.org/2021/08/duke-energy-scandal-ruling-over-influence-spending/ ↩

  6. https://ncnewsline.com/2025/03/11/nc-senate-republicans-unveil-and-swiftly-advance-bill-to-repeal-a-duke-energy-emission-deadline/ ↩

  7. https://docs.google.com/document/d/1D9CiE_8Y_V8o1RXDJnTVPE2s6VItHMsbWQZyNzlD6lI/edit?tab=t.0 ↩

  8. For a review of arguments related to this point, see “Socialism and Electricity: Renewables and Decentralization versus Nuclear” by Simon Pirani in Capitalism Nature Socialism 35 (2024). ↩

  9. Democracy in Power: A History of Electrification in the United States by Sandeep Vasheen, People’s Power: Reclaiming the Energy Commons by Ashley Dawson. ↩

  10. For example, see https://www.ncelectriccooperatives.com/our-members/. For further explanation of the differences between existing co-cops and municipal utilities in terms of genuine democratic participation, see chapter 5 of Vasheen’s Democracy in Power. ↩

  11. See previously mentioned paper Pirani (2024), as well as “Technology Scale and Supply Chains in a Secure, Affordable and Low Carbon Energy Transition” by Richard Hoggett in Applied Energy 123 (2014) for some of the many arguments for decentralization and distributed generation in a climate crisis scenario. ↩