{"id":286127,"date":"2021-06-29T01:28:59","date_gmt":"2021-06-28T22:28:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/duke-energys-botched-war-of-words\/"},"modified":"2021-06-29T01:28:59","modified_gmt":"2021-06-28T22:28:59","slug":"duke-energys-botched-war-of-words","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/duke-energys-botched-war-of-words\/","title":{"rendered":"#Duke Energy\u2019s botched war of words"},"content":{"rendered":"

“#Duke Energy\u2019s botched war of words<\/strong>”<\/p>\n

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Efforts to defend Duke Energy from a proxy campaign led by billionaire Paul Singer have recently taken two quiet steps backwards.<\/p>\n

Last month, Singer\u2019s hedge fund Elliott Management urged the utility to split its $78 billion electric-and-gas empire into three companies \u2014 an unusual proposal in an era of consolidation that a few analysts variously described as \u201codd\u201d and \u201cpuzzling.\u201d<\/p>\n

Earlier this month, however, a trio of op-ed pieces went a bit further \u2014 and they all app<\/a>eared to be working off talking points that were strikingly similar to each other.<\/p>\n

A piece in American Thinker by Michael Busler<\/a> appeared on May 15, highlighting static Elliott had gotten from utility regulators in Kansas and Missouri over a previous deal with local utility Evergy Holdings, with the former saying the deal offered \u201clittle upside to ratepayers.\u201d<\/p>\n

Busler likewise wrote that Texas regulators accused Elliott of lying about its position during the bankruptcy of Energy Future Holdings, and highlighted media<\/a> coverage that called Hess Corp. \u201cthe incredible shrinking oil producer\u201d after Elliott took a stake.<\/p>\n

\"Duke
Duke Energy is trying to wage a war of words against activist investor Elliott Management<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cPrior to Elliott\u2019s investment, Hess had approximately 15,000 employees,\u201d Busler wrote. \u201cAfter the hedge fund meddled in the company, that number shrank to less than 1,800.\u201d<\/p>\n

Three weeks later on June 8, another pair of op-eds cropped up, one from Townhall.com which cited the dustups in Kansas and Missouri, quoting the \u201clittle upside to ratepayers\u201d language and also weighing in on the Hess situation, with some nearly identical language.<\/p>\n

\u201cPrior to the investment, Hess had approximately 15,000 employees,\u201d wrote Townhall columnist George Landrith. \u201cAfter the hedge fund interfered with the company, that number shrank to less than 1,700.\u201d<\/p>\n

A source close to Elliott says the firm vehemently disputes claims that it ran into trouble with regulators and is responsible for thousands of firings. In May, insiders say, complaints from Elliott about inaccuracies in the American Thinker piece persuaded the site to take it down soon after it was published. Ditto for the Townhall piece. American Thinker and Townhall declined to comment, as did Busler and Landrith.<\/p>\n

Also on June 8, the Tampa Bay Times published a piece by Chris Ingram titled \u201cFlorida doesn\u2019t need New York billionaires messing with its utilities.\u201d The piece, which was still on the site as of Monday, also took readers through the stories in Kansas, Missouri and Texas.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe author has said he was not paid to write the column, and he contests the inferences drawn by the hedge fund Elliott,\u201d the Tampa Bay Times said in a statement. \u201cWhile there are similarities between his column and a previously published column, that does not establish plagiarism.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"A
Duke Energy battles a hedge funder\u2019s plans to split it in two <\/figcaption>
AP<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Sources close to the situation say the op-eds appear to have been orchestrated by TDS, a Washington-based public-affairs firm which got attention from Buzzfeed <\/a>for what the site called \u201cstealth corporate propaganda campaign[s]\u201d.<\/p>\n

In a statement to The Post, Duke said: \u201cWe haven\u2019t hired them and are not affiliated with TDS.\u201d A Duke spokesman declined to comment further, including on whether TDS may have been hired by an outside law firm working with Duke.<\/p>\n

TDS didn\u2019t respond to requests for comment.\n <\/p><\/div>\n

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Source<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“#Duke Energy\u2019s botched war of words” Efforts to defend Duke Energy from a proxy campaign led by billionaire Paul Singer have recently taken two quiet steps backwards. Last month, Singer\u2019s hedge fund Elliott Management urged the utility to split its $78 billion electric-and-gas empire into three companies \u2014 an unusual proposal in an era of…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":286128,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/06\/paul-singer.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=1200","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[70897],"tags":[110529,76863,70752,71070],"class_list":["post-286127","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-6-28-21","tag-elliott-management","tag-energy","tag-hedge-funds"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/286127","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=286127"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/286127\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/286128"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=286127"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=286127"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=286127"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}