MULTIMEDIA

Several hundred people marched on Duke Energy headquarters this morning to protest the company's new coal-fired power plant under construction in Rutherford County.  Forty-four of them were arrested for trespassing.  WFAE's Julie Rose reports:

COAL was the four-letter word of choice for protesters winding through uptown Charlotte this morning to deliver a message to Duke Energy officials.

As they marched, protesters chanted "Dirty Coal has got to go."  They want the power company to scrap its plans for a new coal-fired unit at Cliffside and move more quickly toward renewable energy sources like wind, solar and water. 

Duke Energy spokesperson Tina Worley says the new Cliffside unit uses technology to emit less pollution than traditional coal plants.

"We see Cliffside as our bridge to a carbon-free future," said Worley.  "Coal is one of the most used fuels that we have right now. And to say that we could just shut down all of our coal plants would mean basically we would be without electricity. That is not something we want to see."

"But we do not believe we need either his old dirty plants or this new dirty plant," said Hank Elkins of Chapel Hill. 

The protest was organized by environmental groups throughout the southeast and Appalachia.  Mecklenburg County Commissioner Dan Murrey called for more conservation rather than more coal power.

"Aggressive conservation programs have worked in other cities and if we do it here, we'll have time to plan for the next generation of rapidly developing alternative technologies," says Murrey.  "Maybe we should cut the fat out of our energy consumption before we start expanding capacity."

Charlotte native Pat Moore one of about 40 protesters arrested for intentionally trespassing at Duke headquarters. 

"We would like to say to Jim Rogers, 'You say that the coal-fired plant at Cliffside will do us no harm.  We do not believe this," said Moore.  "Stop lying to us about these dangers to make more money for Duke Energy!" (cheers fade out)

A spokeswoman for Duke Energy says the the company plans to shut down some of its older, higher polluting coal plants when the Cliffside unit opens in 2012. 

 

Absolutely unnecessary to build another coal plant or any new nuclear plants. We need to begin phasing out coal, not building coal "bridges" to nuclear reactors. Besides not having clean air to breathe in the meantime, Duke is evaporating millions of gallons of water per day per plant/reactor while pretending our drought is a result of too much lawn watering and toilet flushing. Jim Rogers likes to talk about passing the "grandchild test", but I am afraid it is actually a "grandfathering" in scam to push "just one more" dirty coal plant. Green rebuilding alone could reduce our energy needs by 50%. Combined with covering existing parking lots with solar photovoltaic panel (see www.ieer.org), using wind, wave and geothermal technologies, we will not need another new centralized power plant for generations to come. Green technologies create 6 times more jobs than these old fuels dressed up in greenwashing.

There could be no better investment in than to invest in becoming energy independent! We need to utilize everything in out power to reduce our dependence on foreign oil including using our own natural resources.Create cheap clean energy,new badly needed green jobs and reduce our dependence on foreign oil.The high cost of fuel this past year seriously damaged our economy and society.The cost of fuel effects every facet of consumer goods from production to shipping costs.It costs the equivalent of 60 cents per gallon to charge and drive an electric car.If all gasoline cars,trucks, and SUV's instead had plug-in electric drive trains the amount of electricity needed to replace gasoline is about equal to the estimated wind energy potential of the state of N.D.We have so much available to us such as wind and solar.Let's spend some of those bail out billions and get busy harnessing this energy. Create cheap clean energy, badly needed new jobs and reduce our dependence on foreign oil. What a win-win situation that would be for our nation at large! I just read a really good new book out by Jeff Wilson called The Manhattan Project of 2009 Energy Independence Now. http://www.themanhattanprojectof2009.com Investing in energy independence would positively impact our economy and futures.