March 28

The Southern Environmental Law Center is challenging North Carolina for issuing an air quality permit allowing Duke Energy Corp. to build a new coal-fired unit in the state.

The center contested the permit on March 27, arguing that the North Carolina Division of Air Quality failed to adequately assess the potential global warming, smog, soot and mercury pollution from the new unit, calling the permit illegal.

Duke Energy plans to build an 800-megawatt advanced clean-coal unit at its Cliffside Steam Station, just west of Charlotte, N.C. The final air permit includes North Carolina´s mercury emission limit, which is more protective of the recently overturned federal mercury limits, according to the company. Pollution control equipment will remove up to 90 percent of the mercury emitted from the unit.

The Southern Environmental Law Center filed the challenge on behalf of the Environmental Defense Fund, the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, the National Parks Conservation Association and the Sierra Club.

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