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The real reason Duke Energy wants a 15 % rate hike: expansion and higher profits.
image from http://aaronledesma.wordpress.com/ If you read the information Duke Energy
is spreading throughout the news media in its vast public relations
campaign, you’re led to believe the request for a 15% rate increase (17%
for residential ratepayers) is a result of meeting new environmental
regulations, especially in building the new “state-of-the-art” coal unit
at Cliffside. This is a distortion of reality that
should be understood by all public officials, news outlets and members of
the rate-paying public. The Macon County Commissioners
and the Franklin Board of Alderman are to be commended for being the first
public officials to take a stand against this round of rate hikes.
Hopefully others will follow in short order. This is the second of three rate hikes
Duke Energy will be requesting for its expansion at Cliffside. For
those who have not followed this issue closely, the energy from this plant
is not intended to meet the energy needs of North Carolinians where demand
has been steadily declining due to efficiency and conservation measures in
the past decade. Rather, the Cliffside project is part of
Duke Energy’s plan for expansion into new competing territories in other
states. For example, in 2009, Duke expanded by signing a
contract with five electric cooperatives in South Carolina to provide up to
1500 megawatts of new capacity. That’s more than twice
the capacity of the new unit at Cliffside, indicating an already existing
large surplus of generating capacity for Duke Energy. In addition, the new Cliffside unit
hardly represents “state-of-the-art” coal technology, such as it is, not
even by the industry’s own standards. So-called “clean coal”
technology was previously defined by the industry as Integrated Gasification
Combined Cycle (IGCC) technology in which clean-burning methane gas is the
ultimate fuel extracted from the coal prior to burning. IGCC units
would in addition, supposedly, allow for the capture and sequestration of CO2
or greenhouse gases. Duke Energy chose not to build an
IGCC plant at Cliffside (perhaps because the practicality did not live up to
the industry hype), but instead is constructing an old-fashioned, dirty,
pulverized coal-burning power plant that will release into our air
sulfur-dioxide, nitrogen oxide, mercury, hydrogen chloride, cadmium, barium,
dioxins and dozens of other hazardous and toxic chemicals. While
it’s true that the new plant will reduce the output of most of these
pollutants from what older plants produced without emission controls, the
poisons of Cliffside’s operation will continue to add to the buildup of
toxins already permeating our environment, including and especially mercury.
The new unit at Cliffside will do nothing to reduce CO2
emissions, and in fact will double its previous output of greenhouse gases
to approximately six million tons per year, or as much as would be produced
by a million automobiles. The continued use of coal derived from
mountaintop removal mining is devastating a huge geographical region in
Appalachia, its people, its history and its water supply. And the toxic coal
ash pile from Cliffside’s operation will build as a catastrophe in
waiting. There is nothing responsible about Duke
Energy’s Cliffside project and ratepayers in North Carolina should not be
forced to finance this project through outrageously high rate increases. The
state should instead be pursuing policies that will result in further
reductions in energy consumption and the transformation to clean, safe, less
expensive renewable energy technologies as quickly as possible. Write to the NC Utilities Commission
Chairman Edward Finley and request multiple hearings throughout the state on
Duke Energy’s application for a rate increase: Chairman Edward Finley Email: finley@ncuc.net Phone: 919-733-6067
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