Duke Energy’s latest North Carolina gas plant proposal would drive up bills, pollution

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. – Clean energy advocates urged the North Carolina Utilities Commission on Monday to deny Duke Energy’s application to construct and operate a second large methane gas-fired power plant in Person County – a project likely to burden North Carolinians with unnecessary costs and pollution. The Southern Environmental Law Center submitted expert testimony on behalf of the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy.

The monopoly utility’s polluting proposal, if approved, would impose significant costs on North Carolinians. Advocates noted that Duke’s proposal relies on speculative forecasts of future energy demand that may not materialize. Duke also anticipates that the massive gas plant’s usage will drop by almost half over its first ten years, leaving customers to pay for increasingly idle infrastructure. The likelihood of volatile price swings of methane gas and supply chain delays further increases the risk of higher bills, since fuel costs are paid directly by customers. 

The proposed gas plant – which would support the construction of costly, unnecessary pipelines – would double down on harmful carbon and methane pollution at a time when the impacts of fossil fuel-driven climate change are already harming North Carolinians and driving up bills. Rather than meet energy demand through clean, least-cost resources like solar power paired with battery storage, Duke’s plan fails to demonstrate that its polluting project would be cheaper than renewable alternatives.

“Duke’s polluting plan is out of step with both common-sense climate action and basic economics,” said Munashe Magarira, senior attorney with the Southern Environmental Law Center. “Resources like solar power and onshore wind pose the least cost and the greatest benefit to North Carolinians when it comes to meeting energy demand – yet Duke’s proposal chokes clean energy growth and forces customers to fund backwards-looking, expensive infrastructure.”

“Duke’s proposal would lock North Carolinians into paying for another expensive, polluting gas plant based on shaky assumptions about future energy demand,” said Maggie Shober, research director at the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy. “It would also lock Duke’s customers into paying for expensive, invasive, and potentially dangerous pipeline infrastructure. The most significant pipeline costs aren’t even addressed or acknowledged in this certificate proceeding. This risky and expensive gamble should be rejected for a cleaner, smarter path forward.” 

If the gas plant is approved despite their concerns, advocates urged the utilities commission to take strong measures to protect customers from the costs and risks of its construction and operation.

###  

The Southern Environmental Law Center is one of the nation’s most powerful defenders of the environment, rooted in the South. With a long track record, SELC takes on the toughest environmental challenges in court, in government, and in our communities to protect our region’s air, water, climate, wildlife, lands, and people. Nonprofit and nonpartisan, the organization has a staff of 200, including more than 130 attorneys, and is headquartered in Charlottesville, Va., with offices in Asheville, Atlanta, Birmingham, Chapel Hill, Charleston, Nashville, Richmond, and Washington, D.C.  selc.org

The Southern Alliance for Clean Energy has worked since 1985 to promote responsible and equitable energy choices to ensure clean, safe and healthy communities throughout the Southeast. Learn more at www.cleanenergy.org.