Public Alert: Hearings on Duke Energy-Progress Energy Integrated Resource Plans.

The North Carolina Utilities Commission reviews integrated resource plans (IRPs) each year from the state’s utility companies and rate hike requests. By law, they are supposed to find the “least cost mix of generation and demand reduction measures”. Given the new found political status of Duke Energy (the McCrory Administration) and the assault on regulatory commissions from the Legislature (Senate Bill 10), this process becomes even more crucial to both utility rates and North Carolina’s environment given these developments.

Both Duke and its subsidiary Progress Energy will still be deriving much of its generation from coal, natural gas, and nuclear with little renewable sources. Substitutions of natural gas for coal is a bad choice given the polluting industrial process of hydraulic fracturing and the release of methane (a greenhouse gas) into the atmosphere enhancing global warming/climate change.

NC WARN held a press conference on February 8th announcing their report, “A Responsible Energy Future for North Carolina: An Alternative to Duke Energy-Progress Energy Plans for the Crucial Years 2013-2032?. You can access it here.


IRP Hearings:

February 11th, 7 p.m. Raleigh, NC Untilities Commission, Dobbs Building, 430 North Salisbury St., Room 2115

February 28th, 7 p.m. Charlotte, Mecklenburg County Courthouse, Courtroom 5310, 843 E. 4th St.

http://againstfrackingnc.com/2013/02/11/public-alert-hearings-on-duke-energy-progress-energy-integrated-resource-plans-nc-warn-offers-up-alternative-plan/