{"id":547,"date":"2008-02-18T13:05:01","date_gmt":"2008-02-18T18:05:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.scpronet.com\/wordpress\/2008\/02\/18\/pursuing-new-power-plants-squanders-chances-to-cut-greenhouse-gases\/"},"modified":"2008-02-18T13:06:14","modified_gmt":"2008-02-18T18:06:14","slug":"pursuing-new-power-plants-squanders-chances-to-cut-greenhouse-gases","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.scpronet.com\/wordpress\/2008\/02\/18\/pursuing-new-power-plants-squanders-chances-to-cut-greenhouse-gases\/","title":{"rendered":"Pursuing new power plants squanders chances to cut greenhouse gases"},"content":{"rendered":"

Duke Energy deception worsens regarding new plant\u2019s emissions
\nBy Jim Warren<\/strong>
\nExecutive Director, NC Waste Awareness & Reduction Network (WARN)<\/p>\n

We call on all news media and public officials to exercise the utmost scrutiny of continuing claims by Duke Energy and state officials about the costs and benefits of the Cliffside coal-fired power plant. \u00a0NC WARN stands behind our initial analysis, and Jan. 29 statement that the state has colluded with Duke to mislead the public about key facts involving the plant.<\/p>\n

Furthermore, the deception has worsened since then, particularly in paid Duke Energy ads and statements made to the press following the Feb. 8 court ruling on mercury. \u00a0We do not make these charges lightly. Today NC WARN is publicizing three items showing the months-long deception that has misled many North Carolinians into thinking that building a huge, polluting greenhouse gas machine could somehow, as CEO Jim Rogers says, be \u201cgood for the environment.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

If Duke Energy and the Easley Administration could justify the Cliffside project, they would do so with clear, direct information \u2013 not the barrage of clever public relations tactics used so far:<\/p>\n

1. DUKE’S\u00a0ADS IMPLYING ELIMINATION OF GREENHOUSE GASES:\u00a0 Following state approval, Duke Energy ran an open letter from CEO Rogers in full-page ads across its service area, and probably costing ratepayers a half-million dollars. \u00a0Included are nine references to “global warming” and related terms, plus a statement that Cliffside will “eliminate 90 percent of regulated emissions.” \u00a0Since no other pollutant is mentioned, readers are led to believe the reduction refers to greenhouse gases. \u00a0According to state documents, the new unit would discharge 6 million tons of uncontrolled carbon dioxide each year \u2013 12 times more than the small units to be retired. <\/p>\n

2. GREENSCAM ALERT – A MYTH\/FACT SHEET: This is a slightly updated version of our piece distributed at last week\u2019s Emerging Issues Forum. There will be much more to say about mercury emissions, but the state is playing a shell game based on paper changes in the final permit that did not require Duke to change any pollution controls. Note also that to the extent Rogers\u2019 ad technically refers to \u201cregulated\u201d emissions, the new Cliffside unit won\u2019t remove 90% of mercury either. Although some mercury is removed from the smokestacks, as an element it cannot be destroyed; the highly toxic ash is being\u00a0deposited on-site in a 10 acre\u00a0waste slurry pond right next to the Broad River. <\/p>\n

OPINION COLUMN BY NC WARN:\u00a0\u00a0 Several editors have run our op-ed pointing out multiple deceptions by Duke and state officials. It\u2019s troubling that several other papers have run the power company\u2019s ads and numerous opinion pieces, but won\u2019t run our op-ed countering their veracity.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Duke Energy deception worsens regarding new plant\u2019s emissions By Jim Warren Executive Director, NC Waste Awareness & Reduction Network (WARN) We call on all news media and public officials to exercise the utmost scrutiny of continuing claims by Duke Energy … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-547","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-national-newscommentary","category-sc-newscommentary"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scpronet.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/547","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scpronet.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scpronet.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scpronet.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scpronet.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=547"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.scpronet.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/547\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scpronet.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=547"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scpronet.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=547"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scpronet.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=547"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}