GREENSBORO, N.C. -- Duke Customers in North Carolina could be seeing a $5 billion bill pretty soon.
It is all to clean up mountains of waste Duke Energy created by spending decades burning coal to produce power.
State utilities regulators decided that North Carolina's divisions of Duke Energy could charge their customers for the cleanup.
The North Carolina Utilities Commission decided in a recent ruling and another in February that consumers should start paying the first $778 million chunk of Duke Energy's cleanup.
North Carolina Attorney General Josh Stein said he will do what he can to stop that from happening.
Stein is willing to take the case all the way to the North Carolina Supreme Court.
Stein said corporate mismanagement increased costs that shareholders should also be forced to bear.
A decision by the North Carolina Supreme Court isn't likely before next year.