As Kansas and other states take the lead in shutting down the possibility for new coal, citizens across North Carolina are taking all efforts to stop the NC Department of Air Quality from issuing Duke Energy the permit to build a new 800 megawatt coal plant at Cliffside.
Hundreds of people gathered in uptown Charlotte on Tuesday and downtown Asheville Thursday October 18 to voice concern and dismay over Duke Energy’s plan to build a mammoth 800 megawatt coal-burning power plant about 50 miles west of Charlotte/55 miles southeast of Asheville on the Rutherford/Cleveland county border.
The standing-room-only crowd in Charlotte heard first from Deb Arnason, a coal-fighting friend from Florida who read one of the most powerful statements of the evening. Deb read the testimony of Dr. James Hansen, the director of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies, and world recognized climatologist. Here are his words:
“For the sake of identification, I am director of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York, Adjunct Professor of Earth and Environmental Sciences at Columbia University, and head one of the major units of the Columbia Earth Institute.
I express my opinions here as a private citizen, based on my four decades of experience in research on the climate of the Earth and other planets. I am a member of the National Academy of Sciences, have advised the Vice President and his task force on energy and climate (including six Cabinet members) on two occasions, and have received numerous awards for my research on climate change.
I am writing because scientific evidence and understanding about global climate change have advanced rapidly in just the past several years. Indeed, progress has been sufficiently rapid that there exists a gap between what is understood by the relevant scientific community and what is known by those who most need to know, the public and policy makers. The information is particularly relevant to those who are considering the use of coal for power plants, specifically with regard to the way in which coal will need to be used if we wish to avoid creating a dangerous situation in the near future and especially during the lives of our children and grandchildren.
During the past several years it has become clear that the Earth’s climate is nearing important tipping points. Recent global warming has brought the system to a level where only moderate additional climate forcing is needed to cause large climate effects, including loss of all Arctic sea ice, destabilization of ice sheets and thus global sea level rise, and extermination of many species, as well as intensification of regional extremes of the hydrologic cycle, specifically more intense droughts and fires in subtropical areas such the American West, the Mediterranean region including the Middle East, Australia and parts of Africa, and yet, when precipitation occurs, it will tend to occur in heavier downpours, thus increasing the frequency of floods, and storms driven by latent heat will tend to be stronger (that includes tropical storms and thunderstorms).
The upshot is that the scientific community realizes that we are much closer to the dangerous level of atmospheric greenhouse gases than would have been estimated even 3-5 years ago. In turn the implication is that humanity must find some way to stabilize atmospheric carbon dioxide at a level of, at most, 450 parts per million, and perhaps even significantly less. Based on the amounts of carbon in the different fossil fuels, coal being the largest, an inevitable conclusion is that coal use must be phased out over the next few decades except at truly clean coal power plants that capture and store the carbon dioxide.
In blunter language, it has become clear that in order to avoid creating a different planet with disastrous consequences for humanity and other species, over the next few decades we will need to “bulldoze” old-style power plants that do not capture and store CO2.
Although the legal issues are outside my expertise, officials making decisions today about power plants should be expected to be aware of the implications of climate change for fossil fuel use. It seems unlikely that the public should be held responsible for investments made in new coal-fired power plants, which are surely imprudent if the power plants do not capture and store the CO2.
Sincerely,
James E. Hansen”
Hansen and others have provided ample scientific reasoning to deny Duke the permits to build the new plant at Cliffside. Others at the hearings spoke out on behalf of people who have suffered or have family members who have suffered from the effects of the terrible air pollution in southwestern North Carolina. Amy Carson, a resident of Asheville, spoke of her son whose neurological disorder has been traced to mercury toxicity, a principle pollutant of coal-burning power plants. The proposed Cliffside power plant will annually release hundreds of pounds of mercury into the environment. Children from Charlotte showed the crowds their inhalers and talked about not being able to play outside this summer due to the already dangerous air quality in the metro area.
The room sat in stunned silence as a, short, poignant presentation was projected on a screen relating the scale of CO2 emissions from Cliffside and its effects on efforts being made to reduce global warming impact elsewhere (a la the 2020 Vision). Efforts by Walmart to make all its stores energy efficient, Home Depot to plant 300,000 trees to sequester carbon, North Carolina to get every household to change one lightbulb to a compact florescent, California to dramatically increase automobile mileage and efficiency, all would be negated in a matter of months by the full-time operation of the new Cliffside plant.
Other states have realized that meeting the power needs of the future using the technology of the past is a losing proposition. As a result, new jobs, new technologies, and new industries are sprouting up in other places, not new coal plants. Meanwhile, North Carolina is left bickering about dirty vs. dirtier.
We cannot stand by and let Duke Energy make a mockery of our future! We have too much to lose!
A third hearing has been organized for Raleigh, next Tuesday, October 23, to allow residents to have their voices heard in the central, highly populated region of the state.
The Department of Air Quality will continue to take written comments about the Cliffside Proposal until October 31st. To take action:
-Mail written comments by October 31 to: Don Van der Vaart, DAQ Permits Section, Re: Cliffside Permit, NC Division of Air Quality, 1641 Mail Service Center, Raleigh, NC, 27699-1641. Email comments to: Donald.vanderVaart@ncmail.net.
-Attend the Raleigh Citizens’ Hearing Tuesday, October 23, 6-8:30 pm
Cameron Village Regional Library
1230 Clarke Street
Mebbe, dey gonna hafta to git a mite thirstier in Raleigh, first, Big Jim.
This is great! We need to keep stopping coal projects. Some of us plan to organize a “shut down coal spring break” next semester. We hope to make it national/international to make coal investments really risky and send a signal to Congress that we’re taking global warming seriously and want no coal. This needs to keep moving forward!