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Expansion at Cliffside
The Sierra Club continues to oppose Duke Energy's expansion of it's Cliffside facility in Rutherford County, NC. Expansion avoids requirements set forth in the Clean Air Act, and what's more, the 800-megawatt Cliffside Unit 6 will use outdated, inefficient toxic control measures that will see more mercury and hazardous air pollutants enter our state's air.
On April 30, 2009, the EPA questioned the decision by NC regulator's to award Duke Energy a "minor" source permit on one of the larger proposed coal boilers in the nation.
A history of Cliffside: In March of 2007, the NC Utilities Commission denied Duke Energy's original request to build twin 800 mega-watt coal-fired power plants at the Cliffside location, saying that the utility had failed to prove that both plants were needed. Instead, the state commission gave approval for one plant. The debate over Duke Energy's proposal to build two new plants was characterized by an outpour of public opposition to the facility and rapidly escalating costs. Originally estimated at $2 billion, the price tag for the twin plants had risen to $3 billion before the Utilities Commission made its ruling.
On January 29, 2008 the NC Division of Air Quality gave Duke Energy the final go-ahead to begin constructing a coal-fired power plant at its Cliffside facility, 55 miles west of Charlotte on the South Carolina border. The new plant would emit 5.5 million tons of carbon dioxide annually (the equivalent of one million automobiles), which, when combined with the emissions of an existing boiler, would bring Cliffside's per year output of carbon dioxide to 10 million tons. Along with several other environmental organizations, the Sierra Club filed suit against Duke Energy in federal district court on July 16, 2008, in order to halt construction of the new Cliffside coal plant.
On December 2, 2008, the Sierra Club notched another coal victory in its belt when U.S. Circuit Judge Lacy Thornburg ruled that Duke Energy violated the Clean Air Act for starting construction of its new Cliffside Unit 6 coal plant in Rutherford County, North Carolina, without making adequate provisions to regulate toxic air pollution. The court ruling did not halt construction. It did, however, effectively close a perceived loophole exploited by utilities and coal plants nationwide to avoid federal pollution standards.
In March of 2009, the NC Division of Air Quality issued a revised and less exacting air permit for the proposed coal boiler based solely on revised emissions projections submitted by Duke. For three years prior to the revised permit, the utility stated it's new boiler would be a "major" source of pollution. That minor source designation came in light of a federal court ruling siding with conservation groups who challenged Duke Energy's failure to use the maximum available control technologies.
The new plant is not designed to capture and sequester carbon emissions. Thus, in light of widespread expectations that Congress will act to limit global warming emissions, the new facility is outdated and obsolete before it is built. What's more, the Division of Air Quality allowed Duke Energy to move forward despite unanswered questions about the impact of Cliffside on the Great Smoky Mountains and other wilderness areas in western North Carolina. Considering recent federal court ruling points, NC Sierra Club urges regulators to reopen the air quality permit and require more stringent controls on toxic mercury emissions.
National Background: Around the country, more than 100 new coal plants have been proposed as power companies seek to grandfather-in new facilities before anticipated federal regulation of greenhouse gas emissions. Sierra Club has been deeply involved in fighting the "coal rush" at the national level. Here in North Carolina, Sierra Club volunteers and staff have fought to clean up coal-fired power plants since the 1990s. Sierra Club is committed to moving North Carolina toward clean air and a clean energy future.
"Cliffside is a nationally significant coal fight," said Bruce Nilles, director of Sierra Club's National Coal Campaign. "Duke Energy CEO Jim Rogers has gained national prominence with his repeated calls for action on global warming. But his green rhetoric doesn't match Duke's actions. The nation needs businesses and industry to take a leadership role in fighting global warming, but Cliffside shows that Duke is not yet ready to take on that role."
Environmental Impact of an expanded Cliffside
Wilderness: The plant could have adverse effects on the air quality of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Shining Rock Wilderness Area, Linville Gorges and other so-called "Class 1" airsheds. Regarding the Smokies, the National Park Service warned of "severe impacts" in ecosystem health and visibility in its comment letter to the NC Division of Air Quality.
Clean Air and Energy: North Carolina became a national leader in sustainable energy when in 2007 it established a renewable energy portfolio standard, which requires electric utilities to switch over 12.5% of their output to renewable sources by 2021. Also, the Clean Smokestacks Act, signed in 2002 by Gov. Mike Easley, required power companies to reduce their smog- and haze-forming emissions by approximately three-fourths over the next decade.
Global Warming and Cliffside: Dr James Hansen, a world-renowned climate change expert of the Columbia Earth Institute in New York, sent a letter to Jim Rogers, CEO of Duke Energy, on March 25, 2008. Citing the lack of carbon sequestering technologies in the Cliffside plans, he warns Rogers that the coal-plant, "...will have to be shut down... [it's] a terrible, foreseeable waste of money." He also criticizes Rogers claim that in the case of Cliffside, near-term energy needs trump future considerations. Those near-term needs, Hansen retorts, can be met with, "massive but feasible conservation and efficiency programs, cogeneration, solar, wind, and biomass generation." He also lists several other benefits of energy diversification.
'Captains of Industry' will be pivotal in shifting the world's energy sources away from dangerous, carbon-emitting sources to sustainable and responsible sources. And Duke CEO Jim Rogers has been an outspoken advocate of the need to control global warming emissions. But Duke Energy was part of a consortioum of coal and utility interests backing a group called Americans for Balanced Energy Choices. According to the Washington Post, ABEC spent $35 million in primary and caucus states to promote electricity generated from coal and to rally opposition to Congressional action to address climate change.
What's more, in February 2008, Rogers claimed in a full-page ad taken out in state newspapers that Cliffside will reduce regulated emissions. However, this statement did not refer to Duke's contribution of carbon dioxide: a leading cause of global climate change (Duke Energy has been cited as the third largest emittor of greenhouse gases in the US). Greenhouse gases are not currently regulated by the EPA.
At the Emerging Issues Forum at NC State University in February 2008, Rogers claimed the plant: "is just a step, a transition...to a low carbon world." But by handcuffing North Carolina's energy to a coal plant improperly designed to catch and sequester carbon, Duke Energy remains stagnant.
Public Health: North Carolina has 14 coal plants. In 2000, the North Carolina General Assembly lead the Southeast in voluntarily acting to curb emissions from the state's 14 grandfathered-in coal burning plants. The "Clean Smokestacks Act" is on tract to significantly reduce ozone-forming and sulfur dioxide (acid rain) emissions.
But mercury, a neurotoxin particularly dangerous to developing children, remains a significant threat in North Carolina; North Carolina's 14 coal plants account for about 70% of mercury emissions in the state. The U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Colombia ruled that the EPA erred in not forcing utilities to use the best available technologies to suppress mercury emissions. Duke plans to remove only 90% of the mercury from its Cliffside emissions when available technologies can scrub 98% of the mercury from a coal plant's emissions. Furthermore, the air permit allows Duke to ignore nearly 60 other hazardous chemicals - dioxins, chromium, arsenic, cadmium, etc.
Coal-fired power plants have already gained notoriety in North Carolina for their contributions to bad air days. Emissions include ozone-forming NOx, which is the pollutant of concern for "bad air" days in which children and people with respiratory problems are urged to restrict activities. Coal-fired plants also are a primary source of acid rain forming SOx emissions, which harms surface waters and acquatic populations.
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