Energy & Environment

North Carolina regulators have given Duke Energy the go ahead to build two new gas-fired electricity generating units in Asheville. The $1 billion project will replace an existing coal-fired plant on the site, which Duke plans to retire.

The approval came over the objection of environmentalists who argued that Duke overstated the need for a new plant in the North Carolina mountains.

Public hearings begin this week on proposed rules and deadlines for closing Duke Energy’s North Carolina coal ash sites. The rules are important because they’ll set deadlines for cleanups and determine whether Duke gets to cap the ash in place, or must move it to more secure locations.

Duke Energy has launched a new storytelling website focusing on people, energy and the environment and on Duke itself. Called Illumination, it grew out of an internal site aimed at employees.

“What we realized is that a lot of the stories we’ve been sharing with employees could be of great interest to either broad or niche audiences outside of Duke Energy,” says co-editor Greg Efthimiou.

Beginning a few decades ago, Duke Energy began buying up plants outside the U.S. It also acquired companies beyond the Carolinas that sell energy on the open market. Now, Duke wants to tighten its focus on what it calls its core businesses.

Two years ago, 39,000 tons of coal ash spilled near Duke Energy’s Dan River plant in Eden, North Carolina.  That prompted new state rules and forced Duke to speed coal ash cleanups there and at other old coal plants, including Riverbend near Charlotte.  Some environmentalists support Duke's approach, while others are fighting it. WFAE environmental reporter David Boraks has been visiting some of these sites and has this report.

North Carolina is continuing to fight new EPA rules that limit carbon emissions from power plants. Gov. Pat McCrory's office said Wednesday night the state has joined 27 other states in asking the US Supreme Court to delay the Clean Power Plan, while the states challenge the rules in court.

Duke Energy has been reducing its reliance on fossil fuels, with the closing of old coal-fired plants and the expansion of solar and wind farms. But nuclear power is also an important part of the company’s energy mix, and that could be about to expand.

EDEN - Duke Energy has begun removing coal ash from a half dozen old coal-fired power plants across the Carolinas. One of those was the Dan River plant in Eden, North Carolina, on the Virginia border, where a major spill two years ago prompted new rules for coal ash cleanup and storage.  

Draft recommendations from North Carolina regulators would require Duke Energy to eventually remove coal ash from two-thirds of the company’s ash ponds at power plants across the state. That’s about the same number of sites that Duke has already said it’s targeting for ash removal. 

A cleanup of Little Sugar Creek has been completed after a diesel spill just before Thanksgiving.  Ducks along the waterway were covered in oil, but they’ve now been nursed back to health as well. Thursday morning, some returned home Freedom Park, just in time for Christmas.

As 2015 comes to a close, uncertainty remains about the fate of a federal program in North Carolina aimed at protecting the Red Wolf from extinction. The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service has repeatedly delayed a decision on whether to continue or abandon the Red Wolf Recovery program that was started in 1987. WFAE’s Mark Rumsey has a recap of this year’s developments:

Congress last week approved a bill that makes tax incentives permanent for agreements that conserve land and preserve open space. Lands conservancies are calling it the most important legislation in decades for their movement.
 
Since 2006, landowners have been allowed to take tax deductions for donating land or granting conservation easements - promises not develop their land. That’s been an incentive for property owners to work with local lands conservancies, the non-profit groups that manage conservation deals.