Politicians don’t speak for us on Duke Energy’s plan for Person County | Opinion
Editor’s note: This op-ed was written in response to “One rural county has helped keep lights on across NC. Now it needs the state’s help,” (April 2 Opinion).
North Carolina state Rep. Ray Jeffers and Person County Commissioner Gordon Powell say Person County leads the way as an energy generator for the state. They claim their constituents want the state’s “help” in furthering Duke Energy’s plans to expand methane gas production in the region.
But we believe they are glazing over the real environmental harms of Duke Energy’s plan and are greenwashing reality.
Person County is overloaded and overburdened by the energy needs of our state and by Duke Energy’s refusal to adequately invest in energy efficiency and the renewable technologies that would save us all money.
Powell knows as well as anyone how strongly our community opposes the expansion of methane gas projects in Person County. As chairman of the Person County Board of Commissioners, he presided over a public hearing last December where the county board approved the rezoning of rural areas to authorize industrial construction of a natural gas storage facility. This was despite hours of unanimous public testimony where we, as members of Down Home North Carolina, turned out with over 400 of our neighbors in the bitter cold to show our opposition.
Powell and the county board approved the facility without even the faintest trace of actual interest for our concerns and fears, leading residents to file a lawsuit challenging the decision.
The existing Roxboro coal plant has poisoned our community for decades, is outdated and should be transitioned into a cleaner energy. State representative Jeffers knows this history well, having served on the county board, where he worked to force Duke to clean up its coal ash spills. But taking one dirty fossil fuel pollution source and swapping it for another is not a solution — it’s a Band-Aid.
Duke Energy’s plan to replace its Roxboro plant with two natural gas-fueled plants by 2035 is not about making cleaner energy for North Carolina or creating better jobs for Person County residents like us. It’s about a guaranteed 10% return on capital investments for Duke Energy. Every dollar Duke spends on new methane gas infrastructure is passed on to citizens with a built-in cushion to assure Duke’s profit margins.
Those of us who call Person County home will pay on the front end in the form of rate hikes, and on the back end in the hidden costs of pollution on our health, property values and community well-being.
Duke’s heavy reliance on methane gas to the exclusion of truly clean and carbon free technology is a false solution that locks us into a future dependent on volatile, polluting fossil fuels. We could have the jobs Duke promises, affordable projects and a cleaner environment by investing in established solar and battery storage capabilities, rather than dirty gas and unproven and distant hydrogen technology.
In their op-ed, Jeffers and Powell got one thing right: we need support in the Person County. Our community has been clear that we want the county to play a leading role in North Carolina’s transition to clean energy. Elected officials like Jeffers and Powell, and the NC Utilities Commission, should listen first to those of us who live here about what we want and need, not to Duke Energy.
The Person County community should be part of the discussion and the solution, and elected officials who claim to speak for their constituents have an obligation to honestly represent us. In an election year, voters across North Carolina will be asking: Who will our elected officials put first? Will it be us?
Jeff Hammarquist and Ociane Canadas are residents of Person County and members of the Person County Chapter of Down Home NC.
