Duke Energy

The N&O has a story that Representative Harrison is proposing a bill to outlaw out of state coal for NC coal plants.

Updated by James with link to the N&O story.

Shouldn't $1.6 million dollars of your hard earned North Carolina tax money give you the right to know and refuse exposure to hazardous pesticides, herbicides, and chemicals? If Governor Easley can spend $1.6 million tax payer dollars on a pesticide plan to protect farmworkers shouldn't the plan also include protecting the citizens of North Carolina as well. The plan should be comprehensive and not discriminate between industries, companies, workers, and citizens. Tell the Director of the State Office of Rural Health and Community Care, Mr. John Price to implement a plan that protects everyone's right to know when being exposed to hazardous pesticides, herbicides, and chemicals.

This river supplies drinking water to more than a million people along the way and supports the water needs of numerous coal and nuclear power plants. Duke Energy's renewal of its federal license to manage the Catawba is set to expire this year.

[cross-posted on dailykos at and on my campaign blog]

We’ve been talking a lot about our US Senate campaign being a choice between politics as usual and speaking truth to power.

I was surprised and frankly shocked while reading Greensboro’s Yes Weekly article about State Senator Kay Hagan.

Kay points to Senate Bill 3 (SB 3) as an example of how “we do things right in Raleigh.” The legislation adopted by the state senate last year gives away the store to Duke Energy, one of the top contributors to Kay’s state senate campaigns .

You may not know about SB 3. And the problem is I don’t think you’re supposed to. The Raleigh News-Observer says SB 3 was “an insiders' deal from the get-go,” passed with “virtually nonexistent” public debate and no “serious financial analysis of its total impact on consumers.” http://www.newsobserver.com/opinion/martinez/story/626147.html

According to Jim Rogers Duke Energy CEO:

"He said that Duke Energy was the third largest emitter of carbon in the United States and the twelfth in the world -- and if considered an independent nation, Duke Energy would be 41st in the world -- so carbon emissions is a huge issue for him and his firm and wants to turn that around."

Looks like the pro-Cliffside crowd want Duke energy to break our Clean Air Law. Fortunately the SELC would rather them not.

Mountain Xpress: This morning, the Southern Environmental Law Center and 18 other environmental organizations from across the state issued a petition to the state Division of Air Quality, urging the agency to revoke or modify an air permit issued to Duke Energy for its new Cliffside facility.

In a letter to Keith Overcash, director of the division, the SELC charges that the permit, which was issued to Duke on Jan. 29, violates the Clean Air Act because it does not require Duke to use the best available controls for mercury emissions.

Recently Duke Energy received permission from the State of North Carolina to build a new coal fired power plant in Cliffside, North Carolina. Despite the facts that this new plant could be a major polluter of CO2, mercury, and evaporate 21 million gallons of water each day. You can find all the details here on NC Warn's website.

Today's News & Observer printed an op-ed authored by representatives of the John Locke Foundation, NC PIRG and NC WARN. Their common foe? Duke Energy.

From NC WARN: This ruling should delay the Cliffside project at least two months, drive the price even higher, and seriously impair chances that the plant will ever be built. It’s also a mighty blow against polluting utilities and their control over our government.