State’s Plans at Cliffside Violate Clean Air Act

Chapel Hill –  North Carolina should not allow a dirty power plant that would spew the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide, soot-forming sulfur dioxide, smog-forming nitrogen oxides, and toxic mercury into the state’s air, says the Southern Environmental Law Center on behalf of a host of local, regional, and national environmental and energy policy groups.  In extensive technical and legal comments filed today with the state Division of Air Quality (“DAQ”), SELC warned that approving the air permit for Duke Energy’s planned 800 megawatt expansion of its coal fired Cliffside power plant west of Charlotte would be in violation of the federal Clean Air Act.

SELC filed the comments on behalf of itself and the Carolinas Clean Air Coalition, Environment North Carolina, Environmental Defense, National Parks Conservation Association, Natural Resources Defense Council, North Carolina Conservation Network, North Carolina Waste Awareness & Reduction Network, Sierra Club (North Carolina Chapter), and the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy. 

“North Carolina has proposed to let Duke build a new dirty coal unit at the site of its old dirty Cliffside power plant,” said Gudrun Thompson, attorney with the Southern Environmental Law Center. “Given the very serious challenges of global warming and air pollution facing our state, this proposal is irresponsible and short-sighted.  Our analysis also reveals that it’s illegal.”  

Earlier this year, the United States Supreme Court ruled that all five units at Cliffside are operating illegally because they were overhauled in the 1990s without proper permits. However, the state’s draft air permit would allow Duke to use pollution reductions from these illegally operating, and therefore illegally polluting, units to escape permit review for key pollutants from the new unit and to escape a full review of pollution impacts on national park and wilderness areas. 

Duke also attempts to sidestep a North Carolina regulation prohibiting the crediting of these pollution reductions to avoid permit review for the new unit.  Duke’s reductions would be the result of pollution controls installed on existing Cliffside Unit 5 and retirement of existing Units 1 through 4 – pollution reductions that were required by the state’s 2002 Clean Smokestacks Act. Duke secured a legislative loophole in the General Assembly to try to get credit for these legally-required pollution cuts. 

SELC and partner groups contend that Duke cannot benefit from pollution reductions from sources operating illegally, and that the utility has missed the legislative deadline to take advantage of the state law loophole.  Therefore the utility and DAQ must fully analyze air quality impacts from the plant, including impacts on national park and wilderness areas.  

Under the Clean Air Act, the state may only approve construction of a plant if the plant uses “Best Available Control Technology”— that is, the cleanest technology available.  The draft permit issued by DAQ does not require Duke to build the cleanest technology available at Cliffside, and in fact, would permit 6.25 million tons per year of carbon dioxide, more than 5,100 tons per year of soot-forming sulfur dioxide, more than 2,400 tons per year of smog-forming nitrogen oxides, more than 425 tons per year of fine soot particles, more than 800 tons per year of coarse soot particles, and almost 300 pounds of toxic mercury.

Around the country citizens and the state regulators entrusted with protecting the quality of their environment are standing up against these dirty power plants. Earlier this month, Kansas denied plans for a coal-fired power plant because of the impact the plant’s emissions would have on global warming. Plants in Texas, Florida, and other states have also been shelved for environmental and economic reasons.