Advocacy group NC WARN wants state regulators to hold hearings on Duke Energy’s $56 million plan to upgrade its Cliffside coal units to burn natural gas. NC WARN contends that upgrading Duke Energy’s two Cliffside coal units at the Rogers Energy Complex would be needlessly expensive and environmentally unsound.
Duke Energy Gas Expansion
Duke Energy is planning a massive increase in its burning of natural gas to produce electricity. This would be a climate disaster because of the large amounts of super-potent methane that leak unburned from gas operations, particularly fracking. Recent science from the United Nations and others show that new gas infrastructure is incompatible with the goal of preventing catastrophic climate change. Read more here and in the news items below about NC WARN’s work to block Duke’s fracking gas future.
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Plans for NC pipeline draw protests – News & Observer
On Saturday, a newly formed group of residents and environmentalists known as the Alliance to Stop the Pipeline held marches in Cumberland, Nash and Robeson counties to protest the project and raise awareness about it across the state. Members are asking residents to oppose the project by signing an online petition and contacting the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, which is reviewing the pipeline plans.
Duke Energy Seeks $$$ Sanction Against its Critics — News Release from NC WARN
In a case with sweeping environmental and legal ramifications, attorneys for NC WARN and The Climate Times responded yesterday to Duke Energy’s request for financial sanctions against us for attempting to appeal the fast-track regulatory approval of a $1 billion fracked gas-burning power plant.
Letter to the Editor — Durham Herald Sun
NC WARN has long supported combined heat and power technology – when it’s used as an energy-saving measure. What Duke Energy executives are proposing, however, is an unneeded power plant that would expand the burning of shale gas, perpetuating the disastrous fracking boom.
Students, green groups mount challenge to Duke Energy’s $55M Duke University project — Charlotte Business Journal
Environmental opposition is growing to a proposed combined heat-and-power project that Duke University and Duke Energy have trumpeted as a clean and energy efficient alternative for the university.
Duke Energy – Duke University Fracked Gas Plant Challenged at Utilities Commission — News Release from NC WARN
Today NC WARN filed a motion to intervene in a precedent-setting case whereby Duke Energy seeks to build and operate a fracked gas-burning power plant on the campus of Duke University. Among the many problems with the proposal, it would cause campus greenhouse gas emissions to soar, increase local air pollution, do little to enhance the reliability of campus power supply, and continue driving the highly destructive US fracking boom.
N.C. WARN opposes Duke University turbine project — Durham Herald Sun
A local environmental group has weighed in against the idea of equipping the Duke University campus with a gas-turbine power plant, arguing the institution’s leaders should instead look to solar energy and other sources. See Jim Warren’s reply to this article in the Herald Sun’s Nov. 10 edition.
NC WARN Urges Duke University to Ditch Duke Energy Gas Scheme — News Release from NC WARN
Today NC WARN urged President Richard Brodhead not to allow Duke University to be used by Duke Energy in an emerging national scheme to expand the burning of fracked gas, and instead to join Stanford and other universities who are developing clean-energy innovations.
Duke Energy Gas Case Goes Back to NC Appeals Court — News Release from NC WARN
Today, attorneys for NC WARN and The Climate Times again urged the NC Court of Appeals to take charge of a convoluted case involving an unneeded $1 billion power plant, and to not allow state regulators to block our access to the court. Most recently in this nine-month legal fight, the NC Utilities Commission ruled that we cannot appeal its approval of Duke Energy’s Asheville plant because we didn’t post the $98 million bond the commissioners said we must file in order to go to court.
N.C. regulators approve $4.9B Duke Energy-Piedmont Natural Gas deal — Charlotte Business Journal
The N.C. Utilities Commission has approved Duke Energy’s $4.9 billion purchase of Piedmont Natural Gas, clearing the way for the deal to close early next week. The commission ruled Thursday “the known and potential benefits of the merger are sufficient to offset the potential costs and risks.”