President Joe Biden in a primetime speech to Congress on Wednesday called on corporate America to pay its "fair share," referring to a tax hike embedded in his $2 trillion infrastructure proposal that would raise the rate for corporations from 21% to 28%.
But corporate America has largely opposed the tax hike, saying it could damage the still-fragile economy. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce last month called the hike "dangerously misguided," warning that the provision would "slow the economic recovery and make the U.S. less competitive globally."
In a new interview, Lynn Good — CEO of Duke Energy (DUK), one of the nation's largest utility companies — did not take a position on the tax hike. But she contrasted potential price increases with the company's response to tax cuts enacted in 2017 by former President Donald Trump, which allowed Duke Energy to cut costs for customers by "over a billion dollars," she said.
"One of the things that's unique about a regulated company, like Duke Energy, is income taxes are part of the cost of delivering electricity," Good says.
"What I mean by that is when tax rates came down, I reduced the cost of electricity to my customers by over a billion dollars," she adds. "It did not stay in the corporate coffers to Duke Energy — it flowed right to customers."