The Davidson County Planning Board is recommending approval of Duke Energy's plans for a massive natural gas facility along the Yadkin River, despite strong opposition from residents concerned about environmental impacts.
Company officials made their case for the project during a packed, hours-long meeting in Lexington on Tuesday.
Duke Energy’s Mark McIntyre started the presentation with a story from December 2022 — when Winter Storm Elliott brought dangerously low temperatures to the South.
“We were experiencing a demand that exceeded the power generation we had available to meet that demand, and as a consequence of that deficit, approximately 500,000 customers experienced an outage of electricity during freezing temperatures,” McIntyre said.
He argued that the proposed project, which includes a natural gas storage facility in Davidson County and power plants across the river in Davie County, could help prevent similar outages in the future.
But the proposal has drawn fierce opposition from residents concerned about its environmental impacts. Many attended Tuesday's meeting wearing green T-shirts reading "No Gas Plants, No Data Centers."
“Our land development plan is literally sworn to protect rural neighborhoods from heavy atmospheric pollution," said Barry Sink. "You're being asked to waive that protection to power out-of-state data centers while local children pay prices.”
It’s an argument that was repeated in other comments throughout the evening — that additional power generation wouldn’t be needed if not for data centers. Duke Energy disputes this, saying demand is driven mostly by increased manufacturing and migration to the Carolinas.
Planning board members ultimately sided with Duke — but appeared sympathetic to some of the concerns raised by residents. They asked the company to expand buffer zones and accept conditions restricting traffic and lighting. Duke Energy agreed.
The rezoning still must be approved by the Davidson County Board of Commissioners. That meeting is set for November 9.