Cliffside Plant
{{#Badges:CoalSwarm}} Although Duke Energy chairman Jim Rogers is an active proponent of legislation to address global warming, Duke continues to pursue development of new coal power plants.[1] Duke Energy originally proposed two new 800 MW units at its Cliffside plant in North Carolina. In February 2007, the North Carolina Utilities Commission approved one unit and rejected the other [2]; in June 2007, the commission denied a request for reconsideration of this decision.
Activists affiliated with Rainforest Action Network have staged protests against Bank of America in Charlotte, the bank’s headquarters, due to its funding of this and other coal power projects.[3] The state Division of Air Quality is currently considering Duke Energy’s revised air permit; the comment period on DAQ’s permitting process closed Oct. 31, 2007.[1]
Project opponents have held citizens’ hearings in Asheville, Raleigh, and Charlotte; the Department of Air Quality has held only one hearing in a remote location, Forest City. Ongoing legal challenges to the plant have been made by several environmental groups. On Nov. 17, 2007, Asheville Rising Tide activists and allies – dressed as polar bears – blockaded the doors of Duke Energy’s Charlotte headquarters in protest of the proposed project; two were arrested.[4] In Dec. 2007, representatives of the National Park Service and the U.S. EPA warned that state environmental regulators were approving the project too quickly and with too little oversight.[5]
Contents
Project Details
Sponsor: Duke Energy
Location: Cliffside, NC
Type: Conventional Pulverized
Capacity: 1600 MW (2 units)
Projected in service: 2011
Status: One unit rejected; one in permitting
Financing
Citizen Groups
- Appalachian Voices, outreach [at] appvoices.org
- Asheville Rising Tide, risingtide [at] mountainrebel.net
- North Carolina Sierra Club, Molly Diggins, molly.diggins [at] sierraclub-nc.org
- Southern Environmental Law Center, Gudrun Thompson, webmaster [at] selcva.org
- North Carolina Waste Awareness & Reduction Network (NC WARN, ncwarn [at] ncwarn.org
Resources
References
- ↑ Jump up to: 1.0 1.1 "Cliffside, Coal and Global Warming", North Carolina Sierra Club, undated, accessed January 2008.
- ↑ Duke Energy's Cliffside Power Plant, NC Warn, undated, accessed January 2008.
- ↑ "Asheville Rising Tide Confronts Bank of America for Investments in Coal Industry", Rising Tide North America, June 8, 2007.
- ↑ “Duke Energy Headquarters Blockaded in Opposition to New Coal Plant", Infoshop News, November 17, 2007.
- ↑ "Smokies Power Plant Decried", The News & Observer, December 15, 2007.
Related SourceWatch Articles
External Links
- "Tracking New Coal-Fired Power Plants", National Energy Technology Lab, May 1, 2007, page 17. (Pdf)
- "Stopping the Coal Rush", Sierra Club, accessed December 2007. (This is a Sierra Club list of new coal plant proposals.)
- Duke Energy, corporate website
