Today’s Journal has doom-and-gloom lead editorial on Duke Energy’s proposed Cliffside plant:
The N.C. Division of Air Quality made a serious and costly mistake when it issued a final permit for Duke Energy Corp. to build a coal-fired plant at its Cliffside site in Rutherford County.
North Carolinians will pay for this bad decision for years to come with dirtier air and, most likely, expensive electricity.
Geez, I can hardly breathe as it is. Funny, the equally-liberal News & Observer (via those global warming deniers at Environment NC) has a slightly different take, focusing on opposition to the plant voiced by Democratic gubernatorial candidates Beverly Perdue and Richard Moore:
The candidates clearly have environment-minded Democratic primary voters in mind, but surely they’re sincere in favoring cleaner air. And no doubt they oppose global warming, to which coal plants’ carbon dioxide emissions are thought to contribute. Still, neither Perdue nor Moore took the opportunity to offer a forecast of future demand for electric power in a fast-growing state. Neither explored whether an increase in demand could realistically be met by alternate means, or avoided by conservation.
Neither addressed costs associated with alternate energy sources, or their feasibility — our state is not notable for solar energy potential or readily usable wind power — or mentioned those sources’ inability to handle the “baseload” (everyday) demand that the planned unit is designed for.
Nor did they say anything about a key point in the new plant’s favor — that it would allow the utility to close four of the old, inefficient units at Cliffside. Would the candidates simply wish those plants’ pollution away?
Just for old time’s sake, I’ll note that former presidential candidate John Edwards opposed new the construction of both coal-fired power plants and nuclear plants? That doesn’t leave much left for a state that’s “not notable for solar energy potential or readily usable wind power.”
On to the convention!
