Melissa Williams, melissa.williams@sierraclub.org
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — North Carolina regulators have accepted portions of Duke Energy’s short-term plan to provide electricity to its customers, but declined to accept any of the long-term planning scenarios Duke submitted as part of those plans.
Duke provides power to millions of Tar Heel families and businesses, and its integrated resource plan (IRP) is a roadmap for how it intends to do so over the next 15 years.
In today’s order, N.C. Utilities Commission (NCUC) members approved Duke’s five-year short-term action plan, which includes the full retirement of Duke’s 62-year-old Allen coal plant in the Belmont community, as well as no additional gas infrastructure. (This doesn’t include the gas plant at Lake Julian near Asheville, which started running last year.)
Commissioners appear to acknowledge that the recent passage of House Bill 951, which calls for a 70 percent reduction in carbon emissions from the state's major power plants by 2030, will lead to significant changes in Duke's planning. HB 951 authorizes the NCUC to take “all reasonable steps” to achieve those goals, and the commission has until the end of 2022 to formulate a plan. Since Duke hasn't identified any significant capacity needs until 2025, the commission prefers to hold off on any long-term decisions until the plan is finalized.
In response, Dave Rogers, Southeast deputy regional director for the Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal campaign, released the following statement:
“The NCUC has made the right decision in requiring Duke to start moving away from its business-as-usual resource planning, especially by directing Duke to forecast gas prices more accurately and to reflect its true costs and volatility, which has a serious impact on people’s budgets. And, as commissioners require more transparency on how Duke analyzes when its coal plants should be retired, it will become clearer than ever that customers shouldn’t bear the burden of paying to keep these dirty, outdated polluters running when clean energy is more affordable, and available right now.”
About the Sierra Club
The Sierra Club is America’s largest and most influential grassroots environmental organization, with millions of members and supporters. In addition to protecting every person's right to get outdoors and access the healing power of nature, the Sierra Club works to promote clean energy, safeguard the health of our communities, protect wildlife, and preserve our remaining wild places through grassroots activism, public education, lobbying, and legal action. For more information, visit www.sierraclub.org.