Duke Energy and the Environment:

Duke Energy has the worst record of all the coal burning plants in the Southeast. In 2004, Duke Energy entered into a voluntary agreement with the South Carolina Department of Health & Environmental Control to install additional nitrogen oxide emission controls at Lee Steam Station. The controls support the Greenville/Spartanburg/Anderson Early Action Compact to reduce smog-forming emissions in Upstate South Carolina. In January 2007, Duke Energy began commercial operation of two new 42-megawatt combustion turbine units. The two units replaced three existing combustion turbine units that were decommissioned at that time. Lee Steam in Anderson County has no scrubbers on its smoke stacks. Though they have taken care of the

Record of Duke Energy:

"In 1999 the United States Environmental Protection Agency commenced an enforcement action against Duke Energy for failure to comply with the Clean Air Act. Duke asserted that EPA regulations under the law were arbitrarily changed over the course of 25 years. Environmental groups assert that Duke is using loopholes in the law to increase emissions. Initially, Duke prevailed at the trial court level, but in 2006 the case was argued before
the Supreme Court (Environmental Defense v. Duke Energy Corp. (05-848)). The Court unanimously ruled on April 2, 2007 against Duke Energy in favor of the environmental groups."

According to Wikipedia, in 2002, "researchers at the University of Massachusetts Amherst identified Duke Energy as the 46th-largest corporate producer of air pollution in the United States, with roughly 36 million pounds of toxic chemicals released annually into the air.[10] Major pollutants included sulfuric and hydrochloric acid, chromium compounds, and hydrogen fluoride.[11] The Political Economy Research Institute ranks Duke Energy 13th among corporations emitting airborne pollutants in the United States. The ranking is based on the quantity (80 million pounds in 2005) and toxicity of the emissions.[12] This change reflects the purchase of fossil fuel-heavy Cinergy which occurred in 2005. Duke Energy talks a good talk on their website about working on clean energy, but they have not yet fulfilled the arbitrations placed on them by the EPA.

Update: Duke Engery wants to raise rates in SC to pay for the mass improvements in NC and other out of state areas. We should not have to pay for these rates because they have not improve the power plants polution controls of places like Lee Steam in Pelzer SC. Call you representatives to protest this hike rate.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duke_Energy

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TVA History:

TVA has had a long history with breaking the rules with the EPA. In the first part of the 2000s, The state of North Carolina took TVA to court sueing the electric company for damage to the North Carolina environment, after Tennessee sued North Carolina for the dumping of toxic waist into the Pigeon River. In December 22, 2008,the dam that was an earthen dam which is really not relieable broke at the Kingston Power Plant andspilled thousands of waist water filled with toxic ash into the Clinch River. The Spill was 100 times worst than the Alaska Oil Spill in 1989. There were thousands of dead fish in the Clinch River. TVA responds to the spill by raising rates to pay for the 20 million dollars of damage. Just like Duke Energy, TVA has been reluctant to invest in clean technology with their Coal Burning Power Plants. Resently, TVA has spent about $5.3 billion on emission cleaning devices that includes using cleaner coal with low suffer emissions, and scubbers on all its coal burning plants. But is it too little too late? There has been damage done to the Mt Leconte area where the Alpine forest has died, and there has been a large land slide in 1992 in the Great Smokey Mountains National Park because the trees died and there were no vegitation to hold the soil. The landscape has been dramatically changed near Newfoundland Gap Road.

In August 2010, TVA announced plans to scrap nine coal power plants and replace them with nuclear power plants like Watts Bar on the Tennessee River. Though some see this as clean energy, one would wonder where all the nuclear waist would go. Perhabs the former Savannah River Nuclear site where they are now storing millions of waist materials in the state of South Carolina. The major goal of TVA is to produce cheap electricity for the North East and control flooding on the Tennessee River and nothing else. The revenue goes to pay their stock holders. TVA may think that they are helping the environment, but they are not.

www.knoxnews.com, www.tva.com

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Progress Energy/Carolina Power and Light:

Progress Engery has done the most improvement to the environment in the Carolinas. It has placed the state of the art smoke stack scrubbers in all its smoke stacks into the coal power plants. They have decreased NOxs in the atmospher and CO2. The forest around Mt Mitchell and Mt Richland, the tallest mountains in NC, has started to come back. Emissions has decreased. The Ashville Plant only releases steam, and the ash ponds are fully sound where they have been inspected by the EPA. Ash from coal can be reused for other items that we buy. The main thing is to keep it away from ground water and rivers, and streams.

Progress Energy has also invested in real renewable energy like wind mills, and solar energy. They have worked with the North Carolina General Assembley in 2007 to produce 100 MW of renewable energy. Not related, in 2009, Progress Energy found a crack in its Crystal River Nuclear Power plant where the company has shut it down and has been repairing it. The company plans to test the systems before putting the power plant back on line. This shows that Progress Energy does not only care for the environment, but their consumers.

www.progressenergy.com

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