Duke doubles down on fossil fuels, plans to add fracked gas to Marshall coal-burning units

CHARLOTTE, N.C.—Even as Duke is asking for rate increases on families and businesses to pay for its statewide coal ash cleanup, the utility has now announced a $200 million dollar plan to convert the four coal units at the Marshall Steam Station to burn a mix of coal and fracked gas.

The utility says work is expected to start on the project in the fall of 2019 at the 2,090-megawatt plant and would take about two years to finish.

But North Carolina doesn’t need more fossil fuels.

A report commissioned last fall by the Sierra Club called, “A Pathway to a Cleaner Energy Future in North Carolina,” shows that our state could retire every coal plant, never build another new gas plant and still reliably meet communities’ energy needs through renewable resources, such as energy efficiency, wind and solar.

In response to this announcement, Dave Rogers, representative for the Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal campaign in North Carolina, issued the following statement:

“Adding fracked gas to the Marshall plant is not a clean energy solution. North Carolina ranks second in the nation for solar potential, trailing only California, and we should take full advantage of that resource.

“Duke should retire these units and move away from its reliance on outdated,dirty, expensive, climate-disrupting fossil fuels and toward a system based on robust energy efficiency programs and clean, abundant solar and wind—all of which would lower demand and customers’ bills, while also protecting our air, water and communities.”