Tagged: Duke Energy

Duke Energy is shutting down two coal-fired power plants this spring. The plants are in Rowan and Gaston counties, and they're closing two years ahead of schedule.

The plants are really old, barely used and kind of dirty. The one in Rowan County is called Buck Steam Station and began burning coal in 1926. Three years later, Riverbend Steam Station in Gaston County powered up.

Now neither of them operates more than 80 days a year, and they wouldn't meet new environmental standards in 2015 without major changes.

Governor Pat McCrory has been busy in recent weeks filling his cabinet and top staff positions. And in at least three cases he's appointed former colleagues from his 28 years working at Duke Energy. That's led some to worry McCrory will follow the same pattern when he turns his attention to four impending vacancies at the North Carolina Utilities Commission, which is Duke Energy's primary regulator in the state. WFAE's Julie Rose takes a look now at this regulatory body McCrory has the opportunity to radically reshape.

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