If you live in Asheville, you may have received a mailer recently offering a $25 gift card at Green Sage Café if you signed up with Arcadia Power. Like a number of other local businesses, the eatery proudly proclaims its use of green energy. But apart from the solar panels glinting on some rooftops, there’s […]
City Council’s regular meeting on Tuesday, March 22 at 5 p.m. will be preceded by a budget worksession at 3 p.m. in the first floor conference room of City Hall.
“We remain very concerned by the closed, pro-Duke and unconstitutional process in this case, including the lack of regulatory scrutiny of Duke Energy assertions.”
After a Monday, Feb. 22 hearing disrupted several times by protests, the chair of the state Utilities Commission said he expects to meet a legislative deadline for a decision on Duke Energy-Progress’ conversion of its Asheville facility. Duke warned that it may not phase out its coal-fired units at the site if its petition is denied.
“If Duke makes a large financial investment now in an unnecessarily large natural gas plant, that plant will have to continue to emit carbon dioxide for many decades to justify its construction.”
“In the current rapidly evolving energy environment, building a plant that’s bigger than the absolute minimum required, and doing it sooner than it’s really needed, is risky. Taking such a risk when better options are readily available is nothing short of foolhardy.”
Duke Energy’s request to replace its coal-fired power plant at Asheville’s Lake Julian with two natural gas units has been endorsed by North Carolina Utilities Commission staff. But part of the energy company’s proposal, to obtain permission now for a contingency plant that might be needed by 2024, was called unwarranted at this time.
A fast track approval process created specifically for Duke Energy’s proposal to replace coal-fired generators at its Lake Julian plant with natural gas-fired units speeds toward a Feb. 29 deadline. Environmental advocates and citizens are moving quickly to weigh in on Duke’s plans.
Peak energy demand will determine the capacity of Duke Energy’s planned upgrades at the company’s Lake Julian power plant, according to speakers at a panel discussion on WNC’s future energy needs on Feb. 3. Speakers stressed the importance of partnerships between Duke Energy, local government and community partners to reduce demand and delay or eliminate a third new natural gas-fired generation unit planned for the Lake Julian site.
“If the world becomes a wasteland of coal plants, polluted lakes and melted ice caps, what good is money?”
“While the utility has reduced the overall size of the proposed natural gas plant, it has also issued a warning: Unless something changes in Western North Carolina, Duke will need to build an additional gas-fueled, 190-megawatt peaking unit to meet growing demand. “
“What would most benefit residents and ratepayers is implementing programs that reduce consumption and eliminate the need to build more centralized power plants.”
“Instead, we need Duke’s support for more renewables, and they could start by emulating Florida’s example: installing a solar power station that only uses natural gas as a backup.”
The Asheville City Council meeting scheduled for Nov. 17 boasts a full agenda featuring two hot topics – utility substations and changes to the city’s Homestay ordinance. Citizens wishing to comment on those issues may want to arrive at the Council chamber on the second floor of City Hall earlier than the 5 p.m. start time, as a full house seems likely.
“I hope that the city and Duke Energy will open this process up to a larger WNC stakeholders process.”
State Senator Tom Apodaca (R) and Robert Sipes, General Manager for Duke Energy’s western zone, discussed Duke Energy’s revised Western Carolinas Modernization Plan with a crowd of local business leaders at a meeting of the Council of Independent Business Owners on Nov. 12.
When the fight began, no one knew whether public opposition could kill Duke Energy’s proposed 40-mile transmission line from a new substation in Campobello, South Carolina to a massive new gas-fired power generation plant at Lake Julian in Skyland. Now that Duke has changed course, energy activists celebrate and refocus.
“Truth telling is risky business. The science tells us that if we don’t quickly change our energy infrastructure, it’s very likely that our children will inherit a dangerously warm world.”
Responding to a major public outcry against all of the routes proposed for the transmission lines, Duke has reconfigured its plans for upgrading the coal-fired power plan in Skyland. The revised plans eliminate the need for a Campobello, S.C. substation and a high-voltage transmission line connecting that plant with the Asheville facility.
“A very good argument can be made that if the state of North Carolina refuses to protect its citizens, the citizens in a local government have every right to pass regulations for the public good.”
