Apr 15 - The News & Observer, N.C.


In what's become a traveling sideshow to upstage public appearances by Duke Energy CEO Jim Rogers, more than a dozen protestors Tuesday mocked the Charlotte utility's ongoing construction of a coal-burning power plant in the state.

Despite the political theater outside, Rogers defended his company's controversial policies in his keynote address at the sixth annual Sustainable Energy Conference here. Rogers quipped about the inflatable power plant that his critics prominently set up in front of the conference center, but he said that coal today provides 50 percent of the nation's electricity and will be burned for years to come as the country gradually transitions to cleaner forms of energy that don't contribute to global warming.

Duke's Cliffside power plant, under construction west of Charlotte in the Blue Ridge foothills, will is expected to operate for at least half a century, providing 800 megawatts of electricity for Duke's customers in the Carolinas. In the meantime, Rogers said, the nation will develop solar, wind, clean coal as well as nuclear power from recycled radioactive waste.

But he warned that it will take time to get there, requiring the same multi-generational patience it took to build the great cathedrals of Europe.

"By 2050, every power plant that we own and operate today will be retired and replaced," Rogers said. "We have the ability -- almost a clean sheet of paper -- to build a whole new generation."

Rogers is perhaps the nation's best-known power company executive, an outspoken proponent of clean energy who at the same time heads the nation's third-biggest user of coal. At the national level Rogers has won plaudits for his visionary rhetoric, but in this state some environmentalists and activists ridicule the celebrity executive as a phony.

Protestors next plan a civil disobedience "action" at the company's headquarters in downtown Charlotte. At Monday's scheduled protest, activists will risk arrest as they up the ante for Rogers to halt construction of the Cliffside plant.

The Sustainable Energy Conference has grown to an annual event attracting legislators, regulators, entrepreneurs, environmentalists, academics and other experts in the fields of energy efficiency, renewables and energy policy. Rogers addressed an audience of more than 900, many of whom are advocates of clean energy solutions and deeply concerned about global warming caused by power plants.

Rogers even took a subtle jab at utility regulators in this state and in South Carolina who recently rejected Duke's proposal to promote energy efficiency in the home. Regulators said Duke's proposal would cost customers too much and asked Duke to revise the proposal.

"Today we get paid for producing another megawatt of generation, for building more power plants," Rogers said. "What we need is a regulatory model that incents us to invest in energy efficiency."

After Rogers' remarks, activists outside resumed their protest, read statements and denounced Rogers for his stance.

"We don't have cathedral time," said John Deans, a field organizer for Greenpeace. "The environmental community is appalled Jim Rogers is trying to put himself forward as a hero, but his plans will not come even close to helping to solve the crisis his grandchildren will inherit.

john.murawski@newsobserver.com or 919-829-8932

Read The News & Observer print edition on your computer with the new e-edition!

-----

To see more of The News & Observer, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.newsobserver.com.

Copyright (c) 2009, The News & Observer, Raleigh, N.C.

Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.

Copyright © 2008The McClatchy Company