[Sample organizational resolution for Emergency Climate Response.
When edited and signed, please return by email to NC WARN: ncwarn@ncwarn.org]
Resolution to Exercise Our Constitutional Duty to
Help Slow Climate Change
WHEREAS, the NC Constitution and Supreme Court explicitly grant the People of North
Carolina the authority and duty to grant corporations the permission to operate within the
State through issuance of a corporate charter; and
WHEREAS, the global climate crisis poses a severe and accelerating hazard to the wellbeing of every North Carolinian, especially the economically disadvantaged; and
WHEREAS, based on new and continuing evidence, the world’s leading scientists vigorously
warn that humanity must immediately begin making dramatic reductions in carbon
pollution even while preparing for worsening weather extremes and rising sea levels that
could make most coastal areas uninhabitable within a generation; and
WHEREAS, Duke Energy executives continue to make climate change worse by planning to
operate coal-fired power plants for decades – and by continuing to build fracking gasburning plants that can be even worse than coal in causing climate disruption during the
next 20 years; and
WHEREAS, the use of coal-fired electricity, with its multiple hazards, is in rapid decline in
much of the United States, but not in the Carolinas, and now is the time for this state to
phase out coal plants and begin the inevitable transition to distributed, renewable energy
that will add to the thousands of jobs already being created by the clean energy
revolution; and
WHEREAS, replacing coal with renewable power must also protect Duke Energy workers
through a just transition to clean energy jobs, and whereas NC WARN is proposing a plan for
Governor Pat McCrory to bring clean jobs to communities living with coal-power plants and
WHEREAS, Duke Energy’s status as the largest utility polluter in the U.S. means that a change
in its business plan could be a climate game-changer; therefore be it
RESOLVED, that the People of North Carolina have the civic and moral duty to alter the
path of this Charlotte-based corporation, and be it further
RESOLVED, that [name of organization] calls on Attorney General Roy Cooper to exercise his
authority by investigating alleged violations of Duke Energy’s corporate charter and
requiring Duke Energy to help slow climate change on behalf of the People of North
Carolina.