NC WARN:  Waste Awareness & Reduction Network

MEDIA RELEASE

Contact: John Runkle, (919) 942-0600; or Pete MacDowell, (919)259-3140

May 30, 2007

Environmental Groups Tell Utilities Commission that Recent Developments Add Reasons to Reconsider Allowing a Coal Plant at Cliffside

NC WARN , Environmental Defense, Southern Environmental Law Center, NC Sustainable Energy Association, and Southern Alliance for Clean Energy , filed a motion Friday to supplement  their earlier motion for reconsideration of the Utilities Commission ruling that had granted a certificate for public convenience and necessity to Duke Energy for a new coal plant at the Cliffside site. 

The motion, drafted and filed by the Southern Environmental Law Center on behalf of itself and the other groups, cited the following new developments as additional reasons the new plant is not needed:

     1.  Since the Cliffside hearings, Duke Energy has sent out a request for proposals for new renewable energy resources.  This RFP is seeking up to 2100 MW of new renewable energy by 2012.

     2.  Duke has also filed its new Energy Efficiency Plan to save 1700 MW by 2012 (although 700 MW of this is the existing Duke demand side programs so the actual expected savings is 1000 MW). 

     3.  Duke has withdrawn its application for an air quality permit and is expected to submit a redesigned air control system that impacts the costs of the Cliffside plant.  Since construction cannot begin until the air permit is issued, this pushes back the earliest construction date by at least six months.

Taken together, the public interveners believe that Duke has not shown that it needs the base load capacity for the new Cliffside unit because of the expected growth of renewable energy and energy efficiency.