The nation’s largest electric utility—yep, that one—thinks NC should approve a plan that actually meets the Clean Power Plan requirements. This week in CIB.

Executive Watch: Duke Calls for NC to Work with Clean Power Plan

Even the buttoned-down corporate leadership at Duke Energy understands that it’s time to cooperate on climate change.

At a recent forum on energy policy in North Carolina, Duke’s director of environmental policy and affairs told participants that the state needs to open up its planning for its response to the EPA Clean Power Plan rule. He said we need to take an approach similar to the collaborative process that produced the state’s own Clean Smokestacks Act in 2002 and Omnibus Energy Act of 2007, both compromises that have produced real progress toward cleaner energy in our state.

“Quite frankly, the approach our state is taking is one that is not collaborative. We are continuing to encourage the Department of Environmental Quality to think a little bit larger – let’s bring all the stakeholders in the room,” said Duke’s Mark McIntire.

As befit a spokesperson for one of the McCrory Administration’s principal private sponsors, the admonishment was put in gentle terms. Citizen conservation groups, including NCLCV, have been far harsher and more pointed in our criticisms of the McCrory Administration’s decision to respond to the federal Clean Power Plan mandate with a lawsuit and a “plan” designed to fail. Yet, the fact that Duke Energy has clearly objected in public to the state’s approach at all is noteworthy.

So how do we put this in terms simple and blunt enough for the Governor and his Secretary of Environmental Quality to understand?

When a politician and his appointees are dragging their feet on climate action even over the objections of one of America’s biggest corporate owners of coal and nuclear generating plants, you know that they have gone off the deepest end of the unreasonable scale. It’s time for them to climb back out of that hole.

Administrative Watch: Secretary van der Vaart’s Sorry Excuse

Sadly, judging from his interview with a public radio station last week, NC Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) chief Donald van der Vaart is sticking fast to his dead-end opposition to the Clean Power Plan (CPP). In the interview, he responded to questions about why he was adamant about not using the state’s progress on clean energy development to meet the CPP’s requirements.

Van der Vaart said, “The fact of the matter is, we will probably be able to achieve that mandate naturally…but that doesn’t mean that I’m going to sign on to a rule that is inherently illegal.”

Of course, it’s van der Vaart’s own conclusion—not supported by the state’s chief attorney, NC Attorney General Roy Cooper—that the rule is “illegal.” *It’s a puzzle: Van der Vaart claims the EPA rule is illegal and argues for North Carolina’s participation in a lawsuit intended to make that a self-fulfilling prophecy. In the process, the man theoretically in charge of protecting our state’s clean water and air attacks the Attorney General for declining to support the attack on cleaner energy.

In fact, the U.S. Supreme Court has previously ruled that the EPA does have the authority to regulate greenhouse gases, and require state participation in those rules. Mr. van der Vaart’s tortured circular reasoning here is not an explanation; it’s simply a sorry excuse for a politically-based unwillingness to join in national cooperation to address a global environmental crisis. It appears that his line of attack has more to do with the fact that Cooper is also a challenger for the office of van der Vaart’s political boss, Gov. Pat McCrory. This attack on cleaner energy is not in the best interests of the health and economy of North Carolinians.

Campaign Watch: Election Protection a Necessity in NC

NCLCV is encouraging our members and supporters to take part in efforts to protect voting rights in North Carolina.

Democracy NC is undertaking a voting rights protection effort, placing trained monitors outside polling places across the state on March 15. Volunteer monitors will watch for voting problems created by the new photo ID process and its complex application rules.

Monitors will watch for voters who are confused, frustrated, turned away or treated differently from poll to poll. They will have the voting information hotline number for these voters, answer basic questions, and fill out incident reports for voters who experience a problem. To participate, volunteers need to take a basic two-hour training sponsored by Democracy NC. Trainings are being conducted at 21 locations around the state in late February and early March. For details and to register, click here.

A more detailed description of the role of “nonpartisan poll monitor” can be read here. More information on the Democracy NC organization and programs overall can be found at democracy-nc.org.

Environomics: Nuclear Costs Keep Rising

By the end of 2016, Duke Energy is expected to have spent over $500 million on pre-construction costs of a nuclear plant it is no longer sure it will ever build. The proposed Lee nuclear plant outside Gaffney, South Carolina, is now projected to cost over $12 billion to complete, if it is built at all. Duke acknowledges that the expense is currently economically unjustifiable. The company declines to provide a firm deadline for a decision on whether or not it will ask for final regulatory approval to build it.

That’s our report for this week.

*CIB’s emailed version this morning contained an error in describing Secretary van der Vaart’s background, referring to him as an engineer rather than a lawyer. In fact, he has a law license as well. The error was an oversight on my part as CIB editor. However, Secretary van der Vaart’s legal training makes his assertion that the state should not comply with the Clean Power Plan on the basis that it is “illegal” less reasonable, not more. As an attorney, he must know that a properly adopted agency rule is entitled to the presumption of legality until and unless it is struck down by a court of competent jurisdiction or overturned by legislative action. Neither has occurred. Therefore, his assertion that the state must judicially challenge the rule because it is “illegal” is circular reasoning at its worst—and legally speaking, nonsense. It is merely a cover for a political determination that the state should fight against the cleanup policy. In designing and pressing for adoption of a plan that plainly fails to meet the requirements of the rule, he is placing North Carolina in extraordinary jeopardy of having the EPA impose a its own detailed plan on the state. He is knowingly giving up the flexibility to design our own plan. Even among the states challenging the Clean Power Plan in court, this is an extreme position. As an attorney, he should know better than to argue that this is a responsible approach.