Duke Energy Plans to Emit Six Million More Tons of CO2 per Year in NC

TONIGHT
Public Hearing on the Proposed Duke Energy Cliffside Plant
Tuesday, October 23, 6-8:30pm
Cameron Village Regional Library

Duke Energy has applied to build a massive new 800-megawatt coal-fired unit at its Cliffside power plant west of Charlotte using conventional technology that does not allow for capture of carbon dioxide, and emits a variety of other dangerous pollutants. If built, this power plant can be expected to operate for more than 50 years. It will contribute to global warming, ozone and particulate matter pollution, and mercury pollution in our rivers and lakes.

Under the Clean Air Act, the state may only issue an air permit that requires Duke to build a plant that employs “Best Available Control Technology”— that is, the cleanest technology available. This permit proposal does not require Duke to build the cleanest technology available at Cliffside, and in fact, would permit emissions of over 6 million tons per year of carbon dioxide, over 5000 tons per year of soot-forming sulfur dioxide, 2400 tons per year of smog-forming nitrogen oxides, and hundreds of pounds per year of toxic mercury.

Duke is trying to use pollution cuts from installation of a scrubber on existing Cliffside Unit 5 and retirement of existing units 1-4 to evade permit review for ozone-forming nitrogen oxides (NOx) and soot-forming sulfur dioxides (SO2).

What Duke Energy forgets to mention is that those pollution cuts are required by North Carolina’s Clean Smokestacks Act and paid for by Duke customers. NC regulations do not allow utilities to use these Clean Smokestacks pollution cuts to escape permit review for a new facility. But Duke is seeking to exploit a loophole it engineered in the N.C. Legislature that would allow Duke to get credit for these legally-required pollution cuts.

Below are some talking points from the Southern Environmental Law Center.

• The Clean Smokestacks Act has helped North Carolina be a leader in clean air legislation. Duke Energy should not be allowed to make a
• mockery of such landmark legislation by “double-dipping” to escape permit review and dirty the State’s air.
• During the 1990s Duke illegally modified existing Cliffside units 1-5 without applying for permits as it was required to do under the Clean Air Act and NC law.
• These illegal, unpermitted modifications (part of a pattern at numerous Duke Energy plants in the Carolinas) were among the violations subject to an EPA enforcement action that went up to the Supreme Court.
• Because Cliffside units 1-5 are operating illegally without the proper permits, emissions reductions from them cannot be used to escape permit review for the new unit. Duke should not be allowed to use its own illegal modifications as a stepping stone to further pollute the state’s air.
• Duke is also trying to escape review of the impacts the plant’s emissions will have on air quality in nearby areas, including the Great Smoky Mountains National Park and other federally protected wilderness areas, resulting in reduced visibility, tree death and other consequences that could spoil the enjoyment of such areas.
• Duke should not be allowed to build a dirty, old-style plant that will harm this state for the next generation and beyond. We don’t need new, dirty power plants to pollute our air and our waters for the next 50 years. And we don’t need millions more tons of carbon dioxide worsening global warming. North Carolina has too much to lose.
• Around the country states are standing up against these dirty power plants. They have realized that meeting the power needs of the future using the technology of the past is a losing proposition. North Carolina can – and should – do better, especially when cleaner alternatives like energy efficiency, conservation and renewable energy are available. The state should not approve this permit.