Duke Energy’s Cliffside power plant

Duke Energy Corp. is building an 800-megawatt coal-burning power plant in Rutherford County. Environmentalists have opposed the plant, and on July 16, 2008, the Southern Environmental Law Center filed a lawsuit in federal court in Asheville aiming to halt construction at the Cliffside Steam Station.

The organization contends that Duke Energy doesn’t have a valid air-quality permit to expand the coal-burning electric plant while Duke contends otherwise, although the company has agreed to conduct more analysis of its plans for controlling pollutants.

North Carolina regulators granted Duke an air quality permit in January, and the company has begun construction.

Click here to download a PDF of the lawsuit.

Click here and click here to read letters from the Southern Environmental Law Center that accompanied the lawsuit.

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