Duke Energy, hereafter the polluter (let’s call a spade, a spade), has taken another significant step toward building a new 800-Megawatt pulverized coal-fired power plant in Rutherford County. North Carolina’s Division of Air Quality announced Wednesday afternoon that it has reviewed the polluter’s application for permission to poison our air and has prepared a draft air pollution permit.

DAQ will be taking public commets through May 31, 2007 and will be holding a public hearing at 6:00 PM on Thursday May 31, 2007 at Chase High School located at 1603 Chase High School Road in Forest City. According to DAQ, “[p]ersons wishing to present oral comments at the hearing should prepare their presentations to be three minutes or less.”

A copy of all data, the draft permit, the permit review, the polluter’s application and other material used by the DAQ in making this preliminary determination will be available for public inspection no later than close of business Frdiay, April 20 here and here