NC Coal Plant Receiving Federal Subsidy is a Repeat Environmental Violator

At least three of the dozen coal power plants targeted by the Trump Administration for over $400 million in subsidies to keep operating are repeat violators of environmental laws. Those three include Duke Energy’s Roxboro Steam Electric Plant in North Carolina. 

Inside Climate News reports that the Roxboro plant will receive a grant of $28.4 million, despite its history of exceeding wastewater pollution limits and failures to submit required pollution reports. The plant was also the subject of a 2019 agreement between the state, environmental groups, and Duke Energy, which required the company to excavate over 80 million tons of the plant’s coal ash after leaks that contaminated groundwater. 

These subsidies are part of the more than $700 million that the Trump Administration announced earlier this month in federal funding to prop up the dirty, declining, and increasingly expensive coal power industry. 

Wasting Money On Outdated Technology

“There’s nothing beautiful or great about wasting hundreds of millions more of taxpayer dollars on dirty, dangerous coal. Coal has been on the way out for years because of its high cost to our health and the economy, while cheaper, cleaner options are available and being deployed,” said Matthew Davis, the League of Conservation Voters (LCV) Vice President of Federal Policy and a former EPA scientist. “Coal also hurts the workers, communities, and families who are already paying the high costs of Trump’s reckless energy, labor, and environmental policies the most. While Trump continues to raise costs for families and give handouts to his Big Polluter CEO and billionaire friends, he wants taxpayers to pay the price with their health and their wallets.”