Canary Coalition Statement in Reaction to DAQ Approval of Cliffside Expansion Title V permit

January 30, 2008
As long expected, today the NC Division of Air Quality (DAQ) has fallen into lock-step with the utility industry by approving the Title V permit for the construction of Duke Energy's proposed 800 megawatt expansion of its Cliffside coal-burning power plant in Rutherford County, North Carolina.  In doing so, the DAQ has once again confirmed the inappropriate relationship between the state enforcement agency and the industry it is charged with regulating. Once again, the revolving door between utility company and regulatory agency administrations has surfaced for all to see, to the detriment of the citizens of our state.  It's time to clean house in North Carolina .

Plans for forty-two proposed coal-burning power plants in 23 states have been scrapped in the past three years due to health, environmental and economic concerns.  Burning coal to produce electricity is the largest single source of greenhouse gas emissions world-wide.  Burning coal produces massive sulfur-dioxide emissions linked directly to widespread heart, lung and respiratory disease and the death of tens of thousands of Americans annually.  Sulfur dioxide from coal-burning is also responsible for acid rain and the gray-silvery haze that obscures mountain vistas and kills trees, plants and wildlife in the rare and endangered biodiversity of the Great Smoky Mountains, Blue Ridge and Greater Appalachian region.  Burning coal results in massive nitrogen-oxide emissions that combine with natural and man-made hydro-carbons in the presence of sunlight to form heavy concentrations of ozone that burn moist lung and respiratory tissues, causing a severe epidemic of asthma, especially in the children of our region.  The constant release of nitrogen-oxide emissions from coal-burning power plants also result in excess nitrogen deposition on farmland, forests and in rivers and streams, acidifying the soil, endangering plant and wildlife and causing excess algae growth that endangers aquatic wildlife.   Burning coal releases large quantities of mercury into the biosphere that bio-accumulates in aquatic wildlife, increasing each year in its concentrations and in area of contamination, causing neural damage in humans and animals, resulting in severe learning disabilities and autism in children.  Burning coal relies on mountaintop removal mining, an environmentally devastating practice that is indiscriminately destroying entire communities, contaminating waterways and obliterating vast ecological systems in the mountains of West Virginia , Kentucky , eastern Tennessee and mountain ranges in the western United States .  There is no such thing as "clean coal" technology and there is no way to continue burning coal while being responsible to future generations.

There is no excuse, in the year 2008, for granting a permit for the construction of a new coal-burning power plant, in North Carolina , to feed policies that promote wasteful energy use.  Future energy demand can be met through peak power shifting, through renewable energy technologies that harvest wind, solar, geothermal, wave, and tidal resources and through reductions in energy consumption by creating public policies that provide meaningful economic incentives for ratepayer investments in efficiency and conservation measures.  Peak power shifting, renewable energy and efficiency programs promise vast economic opportunities and high-paying jobs for large populations in both urban and rural communities. Efficiency investments will save ratepayers money on monthly utility bills.  Renewable energy options, efficiency and peak-power shifting measures will result in a cleaner, safer and healthier environment, ultimately reducing health care costs for individuals, for the business community, for industry and for state and local governments, as coal-burning is phased-out.

But, in North Carolina there is a problem that prevents this type of progress.  The utility industry, Duke Energy and Progress Energy in particular, wield too much political power, disproportionately and inappropriately influencing elected officials and regulatory agencies, creating public energy policy for the benefit of shareholder profits rather than for the public welfare.  In the last two election cycles alone in North Carolina, utility industry related political action communities poured 1.7 million dollars into legislative campaigns throughtout the state, leaving virtually the entire General Assembly indepted to this special interest (their are a few notable and noble exceptions).  The political influence of the utility industry has manifested itself in many ways to the detriment of the citizens of our state. The Public Utility Commission (PUC) has been "stacked" with a majority of members having ties to the industry.  In 2007, Edward Findlay, an attorney who represented utility interests for more than two decades, was appointed as Chair of the PUC by the General Assembly.  The Division of Air Quality is likewise stacked.  Donald Van der Vaart, who administers the Title V permitting process, was an administrator for Progress Energy prior to his job with the DAQ.  In the 2007 legislative session, due to extreme pressure exerted by the utility industry, the General Assembly reversed a 25-year ban on ratepayer funding of construction-work-in-progress on new power plants in North Carolina . In 2006, the Environmental Management Commission, under the influence of the utility industry, reduced New Source Review standards in step with the Bush Administration's EPA effort to dismantle air quality safeguards built into the federal Clean Air Act. 

The people of North Carolina deserve better than this.  Every citizen who lives in this state, every newspaper editor, every radio and television news director should come to realize and report on the fact that our state government and regulatory agencies are being inappropriately influenced by the utility industry, are being mis-directed on energy policy, and that for the sake of our health, for the sake of the economy, for the sake of the environment and for the sake of future generations, we have to take our government back. 

The Canary Coalition will not rest until the Cliffside project is abandoned.  We will accelerate and build and mobilize through the weekly Boycott to Stop Cliffside and all new coal and nuclear power development.  We will work tirelessly to implement new energy policies that will result in reductions in energy consumption and the deployment of clean, safe renewable technologies, to improve the health and well-being, the economy and the environment of North Carolina and the greater Appalachian region.  In the spirit of Martin Luther King, Jr, we shall overcome the obstinance and backwards resistance of the powerful interests that are standing in the way of real progress toward a better future.