Emotional Hearing in Asheville on Cliffside Held in Absence of DAQ

October 19, 2007

Dozens of speakers lined up last night at a public hearing at Asheville-Buncombe Technical College to voice concern and dismay over Duke Energy's plan to build a mammoth 800 megawatt coal-burning power plant about 55 miles southeast of Asheville on the Rutherford/Cleveland county border. The hearing was organized by a large coalition of community and environmental organizations because the NC Division of Air Quality refused multiple requests to provide the opportunity for Asheville citizens to be heard. The proceedings were videotaped and will be sent to the DAQ along with written comments gathered at the hearing.

The large crowd heard moving testimony from people who have suffered or have family members who have suffered from the effects of air pollution, including Amy Carson who's son has a neurological disorder traced to mercury toxicity, a principle pollutant of coal-burning power plants. The proposed Cliffside power plant will annually release hundreds of pounds of mercury into the environment.

Expert testimony was offered by several professionals, including UNCA professor Dot Sulock who decried the 6 million tons of carbon dioxide that would be emitted annually from the Cliffside plant, contributing to global warming. She cited a study indicating enough potential wind energy off the Atlantic coastal region to provide for all the energy needs of seven states. Sulock questioned the rationality of ever building another coal-fired power plant.
The room sat in stunned silence as a, short, poignant presentation was projected on a screen relating the scale of CO2 emissions from Cliffside and its effects on efforts being made to reduce global warming impact elsewhere. Efforts by Walmart to make all its stores energy efficient, Home Depot to plant 300,000 trees to sequester carbon, North Carolina to get every household to change one lightbulb to a compact florescent, California to dramatically increase automobile mileage and efficiency, all would be negated in a matter of months by the full-time operation of the new Cliffside plant.

The citizen-initiated hearing in Asheville was the second one held this week after more than 200 people turned out in Charlotte on Tuesday to voice their concerns and opposition to construction of the power plant. A third hearing has been organized for Raleigh, next Tuesday, October 23, to allow residents to have their voices heard in the central, highly populated region of the state. 
The DAQ held one hearing on Duke Energy's Title V permit application for Cliffside on September 18 in remote Forest City, a rural southwestern part of the state. The only publicity for the official DAQ hearing was a small public notice ad published in a local rural newspaper.