Duke to Go Ahead with Cliffside Project

It appears that Duke Energy has cleared another hurdle in its attempt to construct another clean coal-fire baseload power plant at its Cliffside facility. Construction of the plant has been met with much opposition from local environmental groups due primarily to concern over carbon emissions.

Duke’s original application called for two new 800 megawatt power plants at the facility. Since then, the Fortune 500 company has downgraded its request to a single 800-megawatt plant with an increase in funding to subsidize energy efficiency measures and to acquire energy from renewable sources to make up for the other 800 megawatts.

Energy efficiency basically amounts to putting an additional charge on all customers for electricity and then awarding certain customers with subsidy payments for installing new high-efficiency appliances. Duke offered this proposal as a capitulation to environmental opponents of the plant. Yet, the single 800-megawatt plant has been met with continued resistance from groups such as the Southern Environmental Law Center. Nonetheless, the N.C. Utilities Commission now appears to have approved Duke’s application.

This is an important decision for citizens interested in the health and safety (as well as economic) aspects of having access to a reliable electricity source. According to page 23 of the State Energy Plan, efforts to control the demand for electricity (usually called demand-side management or DSM, of which energy efficiency is a key component) have been less effective than projected in the past.

In addition, the non-dispatchable nature of energy derived from renewable sources such as wind and solar resources severely decreases the reliability of the electric grid. Duke has even testified (2003 Annual Report page 36) in the past about the unreliability of wind power, yet some opponents continue to value reductions in carbon emissions above the health and safety of human life.