Duke to Close Asheville Coal Plant

Under pressure to address rampant coal ash pollution, Duke Energy announced it will close its aging coal plant located near Asheville, N.C., and replace it with a 650-megawatt natural gas-fired facility, nearly doubling the current plant’s electricity-generating capacity. Of the four facilities deemed “high priority” by North Carolina’s Coal Ash Management Act, the Asheville plant is the only one that still burns coal. The facility is also one of the state’s few still-operating plants involved in the federal lawsuit over coal ash pollution that led Duke to plead guilty to nine misdemeanors under the Clean Water Act. In May, the North Carolina Senate approved a three-year extension to Duke’s 2019 deadline for cleaning up the plant’s coal ash ponds.