
{"id":6968,"date":"2009-09-10T08:38:22","date_gmt":"2009-09-10T16:38:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.carrborocitizen.com\/main\/?p=6968"},"modified":"2009-09-10T09:06:44","modified_gmt":"2009-09-10T17:06:44","slug":"open-letter-on-duke-rate-increase","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/2009\/09\/10\/open-letter-on-duke-rate-increase\/","title":{"rendered":"Open letter on Duke rate increase"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Editor\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s note: Following is an open letter from environmental and civic groups to N.C. Utilities Commission chair Edward Finley on Duke Energy\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s proposed rate increase. The commission is holding a public hearing on the matter tonight (Thursday) at Durham City Hall.<\/p>\n<p>Dear Chairman Finley,<\/p>\n<p>We, the undersigned health, business, social justice and environmental organizations \u00e2\u20ac\u201c representing thousands of North Carolinians \u00e2\u20ac\u201c write to request that the North Carolinas Utilities Commission revoke the certificate of public convenience and necessity (CPCN) for Duke Energy\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s proposed Cliffside Coal Plant (Unit # 6) and to ask that the Commission deny Duke Energy\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s request for a 13.5 percent residential rate increase <!--more-->which includes covering the costs of building Unit # 6 ($600 million to $1 billion of the request). This rate increase, if granted, would be on top of the 4.5 percent fuel cost increase (largely for coal) that the Commission just granted \u00e2\u20ac\u201c for a total of an 18% rate increase for residential consumers.<\/p>\n<p>As you may know, many of our members testified in opposition to the Cliffside CPCN when the Commission first considered Duke Energy\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s application to construct and operate Unit #6. Unit #6 is unnecessary and our concerns about its negative effects on the pocketbooks, health and welfare of North Carolina residents have deepened since the Commission first issued the CPCN. Recently 24 organizations have made known to the Commission their support for revoking Cliffside Unit #6\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s CPCN.<br \/>\nThe Waning Demand for Duke Energy\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Electricity makes Cliffside Unit #6 Clearly Unnecessary. Sales are down in Duke Energy\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s service area. This is especially telling when sales to Orangeburg and similar entities outside the service area are removed from Duke Energy\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s original forecasts. Moreover, Duke Energy\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s 2008 Integrated Resource Plan retains 600 MW of wholesale contracts in 2012 \u00e2\u20ac\u201c the exact amount Unit #6 is projected to supply. In addition, the proposed settlement agreement in Duke Energy\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Save-a-Watt docket would decrease the demand for Unit #6 even further.<\/p>\n<p>Forcing Consumers to Pay for Constructing an Unnecessary Power Plant During the Worst Recession Since the Great Depression Will Have Major Negative Effects on Residential Ratepayers. There is no doubt that building new power plants, such as Unit #6, will continue to increase our rates much more than by using energy more efficiently, increasing co-generation, and deploying renewable energy. According to Duke University economist John Blackburn, Duke Energy\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s own data shows new plants can be avoided by modest increases in energy efficiency and with renewable sources of energy at levels already required in North Carolina. <\/p>\n<p>At the projected cost of at 2.4 billion dollars, Unit # 6 is too expensive and does not \u00e2\u20ac\u201c as evidenced by the timing of Duke Energy\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s current request for a rate increase \u00e2\u20ac\u201c consider the all-but-certain costs of national carbon regulation and increases in the price of coal. North Carolina has the nation\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s eighth worst unemployment rate at 11.1% and, as such, is likely to take much longer to recover from the recession than other states. Forcing consumers to pay for an unneeded power plant is unconscionable.<br \/>\nUnit #6 Will Pollute Our Air, Land and Water for the Next Fifty Years. Unit #6 poses a serious threat to our air, land and water and will adversely impact the health of our members and their families over its fifty-year lifespan. For instance, by emitting fine particulate matter, oxides of nitrogen, sulfur dioxide, mercury and an alphabet soup of other toxic chemicals, Unit #6 will choke the state\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s skies and deposit these toxics onto our land and water \u00e2\u20ac\u201c adversely affecting crops and fisheries. The economic effects of damaging these resources alone warrant the revocation of the CPNC. More disturbing is the fact that children, the elderly and those with chronic sickness will be the ones bearing the greatest burdens of Unit #6. Externalized costs for Duke Energy are real costs for North Carolina residents. Moreover, in a time when the world and the nation are gravely concerned about the impacts of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases, Unit #6 is expected to emit six million tons of carbon into the atmosphere annually &#8211; the greenhouse gas equivalent of one million cars per year. Of course, these emissions will materially add to the myriad costs of climate change, including sea level rise, to our state.<\/p>\n<p>Simply Put, Unit #6 \u00e2\u20ac\u201c and its Concomitant Serious Negative Effects on the Health, Welfare and Economic Well-being of North Carolina Residents \u00e2\u20ac\u201c is Indefensible. Responding to the worsening climate crisis, the rising costs of coal-fired power plants, and the social and environmental devastation of mountaintop removal coal mining, state regulators from across the country have simply said \u00e2\u20ac\u0153no\u00e2\u20ac\u009d to nearly one hundred proposed coal-fired power plants since 2006. The conclusion of these decision makers that America can meet its future energy demands without building new coal-fired power plants is rapidly spreading. For instance, the chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, Jon Wellinghoff recently stated \u00e2\u20ac\u0153we may not need any ever,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, has said \u00e2\u20ac\u0153the idea that wind energy has the potential to replace most of our coal-burning power today is a very real possibility. It is not technology that is pie-in-the sky; it is here and now.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d <\/p>\n<p>Charged by the General Assembly with, among other things, (1) promoting least-cost energy planning, (2) providing just and reasonable rates, (3) promoting conservation of energy, and (4) providing fair regulation of public utilities in the public interest, the Commission has both the authority and the duty to deny Duke Energy\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s requested rate increase and to revoke its CPCN for Cliffside Unit #6. <\/p>\n<p>To the extent that Duke Energy argues that revocation would work an undue financial hardship against it, the General Assembly has already spoken to the issue by anticipating that Unit #6 might never be completed due to fiscal and environmental concerns. Accordingly, the General Assembly has provided Duke Energy the opportunity to recover certain costs of constructing Unit #6 in the event it is not completed if those costs are judged prudent. See N.C. Gen. Stat. \u00c2\u00a7\u00c2\u00a7 62-110.1(f2)\u00e2\u20ac\u201c(f3). <\/p>\n<p>For the foregoing reasons, we \u00e2\u20ac\u201c on behalf of our members \u00e2\u20ac\u201c respectfully request that the Commission: (1) deny Duke Energy\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s request for a rate increase, and (2) immediately revoke the CPCN for Unit #6.<\/p>\n<p>Sincerely,<br \/>\n(signed by representatives of Appalachian Voices, Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League, Canary Coalition, Carolinas Clean Air Coalition, Catawba Riverkeeper Foundation, Clean Water for North Carolina, Greenpeace North Carolina, Mountain Voices Alliance, NC Conservation Council, NC Conservation Network, NC Fair Share, NC Justice Center, NC WARN, North Carolina Interfaith Power and Light, Progressive Democrats of North Carolina, NC Student Climate Coalition, and others.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Editor\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s note: Following is an open letter from environmental and civic groups to N.C. Utilities Commission chair Edward Finley on Duke Energy\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s proposed rate increase. The commission is holding a public hearing on the matter tonight (Thursday) at Durham City Hall. Dear Chairman Finley, We, the undersigned health, business, social justice and environmental organizations \u00e2\u20ac\u201c&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6968","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-community"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6968","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6968"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6968\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6975,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6968\/revisions\/6975"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6968"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6968"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6968"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}