Coal as a primary power source is on the hot seat on multiple fronts, this week in CIB:

Judicial Watch: Duke Sued Over Coal Ash, Groups Seek to Intervene

An increasingly heated debate over the risks of coal ash pond storage has now gone to court in North Carolina, and environmental groups are seeking status as intervening parties to help watchdog the case.

The issue of coal ash ponds catapulted itself into the public consciousness several years ago when a Tennessee Valley Authority coal plant ash pond collapsed, resulting in downstream property destruction and a badly contaminated river. Since that time, there’s been growing attention to not just the risks of catastrophic collapse, but longer-term and more subtle pollution from metals and toxins in the ash draining into groundwater and streams. They seep into these waters from ash stored in the unlined ponds.

That pollution is the focus of the current litigation. The NC Dept. of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) last year filed legal actions against 14 Duke Energy facilities where it indicates pollution from coal ash has contaminated state waters. However, DENR did not act until citizen conservation groups filed notice of their intent to sue. In addition, DENR has since then reached a proposed settlement with Duke over two sites which conservation groups believe provides inadequate protection of the public.

Therefore, the Southern Environmental Law Center (SELC) last week filed a request with the court in the open cases that seven citizen conservation groups it represents be allowed to enter as parties to the cases. According to SELC, that’s the only way to effectively guard against the risk of DENR reaching other deals with Duke which fall short of the needed pollution cleanups. The conservation groups represented by SELC are the Neuse Riverkeeper Foundation, the Yadkin Riverkeeper, Cape Fear River Watch, Appalachian Voices, Western North Carolina Alliance, Winyah Rivers Foundation, and Waterkeeper Alliance.

In a news release, SELC senior attorney Frank Holleman said, “Duke’s coal ash pollution is threatening rivers, lakes, and drinking water in every part of North Carolina. Local groups from around the state have come together to help ensure that the state and Duke Energy take meaningful action to clean up Duke’s illegal coal ash pollution across North Carolina.” More details of the action can be found here.

Another good summary of the case, including comments from Duke and others, can be found here.

Washington Watch: New Administrator for EPA Region IV

US EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy last week announced the appointment of a new Region IV Administrator: Heather McTeer Toney. Region IV, based in Atlanta, covers eight states including North Carolina.

Toney is a former mayor of Greenville, Mississippi; an attorney; and has most recently served as the Executive Director of the Center for Excellence in Student Learning at Mississippi Valley State University. She is also a past president of the National Conference of Black Mayors.

Sierra Club spokesperson Mary Anne Hitt (director of its Beyond Coal Campaign) offered congratulations, saying that Toney “has an impressive history of advocating for public health, community, labor and women’s issues and we are excited to see the energy and expertise she will bring to her new position.”

Environomics: Solar Displacing Coal Need

In the last two years alone, about 200,000 U.S. homes and businesses have added rooftop solar photovoltaic panels–enough to produce about 3 gigawatts of power (equivalent to four or five conventionally sized modern coal power plants). The technology at work here is no longer viewed as “experimental” and is rapidly dropping in price. It’s becoming attractive to so many, in fact, that it has some high-cost utilities feeling the heat of a trend they view as an economic threat to their profits. Solar advocates, however, are fighting back in support of this move to clean energy. See this instructive article in Bloomberg News here.

Education & Resources: The Costs of Coal

The Southern Alliance for Clean Energy (SACE) is offering a free webinar next week on the costs of reliance on coal for power generation in the Southeast. The webinar will be held on Wednesday, January 29, noon to 1 p.m. There is no charge. For more information and to register, see here.

The SACE presentation will rely in part on a report released last week by the Union of Concerned Scientists, which includes the point that North Carolina power producers (primarily Duke Energy) paid $1.8 billion in 2012 alone for coal imported from other states. The report contrasts those costs with benefits to this state’s economy which would derive from spending more of those dollars here to generate more energy from renewable sources such as solar and wind. For further information on that report, see here.

That’s our report for this week.