Duke plant cited in pollution survey

Jul 26 - McClatchy-Tribune Regional News - Christopher D. Kirkpatrick The Charlotte Observer, N.C.

Duke Energy Corp.'s massive Belews Creek coal-fired power plant made a top 50 list today as one of the largest emitters of carbon dioxide and part of the cause of global warming.

The Environmental Integrity Project, a five-year-old, nonprofit that advocates for tougher pollution regulation, released its lists of top 50 plants that pollute in four categories. The study, called "Dirty Kilowatts," lists North Carolina among the top 10 states with the highest level of carbon dioxide emitted from power plants.

The study lists Belews Creek in Stokes County as the nation's 28th largest emitter of carbon dioxide, cited by most scientists as a cause of global warming. The plant, which came online in 1974, is Duke's largest and can generate 2,240 megawatts, the company said.

Progress Energy's Roxboro, N.C., coal-fired plant was 26th.

Congress is wrestling this session with how best to regulate the gas for the first time.

The nonprofit, founded by former EPA enforcement attorneys, is pushing for quicker regulation as power companies, including Duke, plan a new generation of coal-fired projects.

The group said that utility executives are hoping plants already built or under construction will be exempt from any new regulation Congress might enact. Duke Chief Executive Jim Rogers has said he expects Duke's planned 800-megawatt coal-fired power unit about 55 miles west of Charlotte to be exempt from new carbon dioxide regulation.

The project has been approved by the N.C. Utilities Commission and a contractor selected for the $2 billion project.

Read tomorrow's Charlotte Observer for more details on this developing story.