Energy's ethical dimensions

BOONE -- When state Rep. Pricey Harrison introduced the Appalachian Mountains Preservation Act in the legislature last month, she said her aim was to start a conversation about where North Carolina's coal comes from. By that measure, the Guilford County Democrat's bill is already a success.

Duke Energy's response to the bill, which would prohibit North Carolina utilities from consuming coal mined by the controversial "mountaintop removal" method, came from a spokeswoman, Paige Sheehan. She said legislators should oppose the bill because, "You'd basically cut our market in half where we can get our coal" -- referring to the Central Appalachian Basin where Duke gets almost all of its coal and a hotbed of mountaintop removal.

This was an apparent turnaround from Duke's testimony just last year. Then, the Charlotte-based utility was trying to reassure the state Utilities Commission about the wisdom of building another coal-burning power plant west of Charlotte. Speaking on behalf of Duke Energy, William McCollum told the commission not only that coal prices were likely to remain low and stable, but also that Duke could obtain coal from a variety of sources -- not just from the Central Appalachian Basin. Other likely sources included Pennsylvania, Illinois, Wyoming and international imports.

But if Duke had an inclination or incentive to keep electricity rates low, it would already be buying from those other sources rather than relying on Appalachian coal, which was selling for $108 per ton recently on the spot market, compared with $14 for coal from Wyoming's Powder River Basin.

LAST YEAR PROGRESS ENERGY'S FLORIDA DIVISION WAS made to return $13.8 million to Florida ratepayers for continuing to use exorbitantly priced Appalachian coal rather than switching to lower-priced Western coals. (For North Carolina coal-fired plants, the lower cost of Western-state coal would be offset at least in part by higher transportation costs and the lower energy content of the coal.)

The case in Florida was brought by the AARP and the Florida Industrial Power Users, and groups representing those constituencies in North Carolina have even greater cause for concern. Instead of transitioning to less expensive coal sources, Duke Energy and Progress Energy are asking for further rate increases (Progress requested one of 16.2 percent June 7) partly to cover the increasing cost of Central Appalachian coal, which has risen sharply in price since 2000 and is expected by independent energy analysts to go nowhere but up.

But there is even more to learn from Duke's statement in response to Harrison's bill. Duke Energy does not dispute that it is one of the biggest consumers of coal that comes from mountaintop removal mines -- mines that have destroyed more than 470 Appalachian mountains, buried more than 1,000 miles of streams and been called in Vanity Fair magazine "one of the greatest act of physical destruction this country has ever wreaked upon itself."

THE UTILITIES ARE BETTING THAT VAGUE THREATS OF PRICE INCREASES will put the issue to rest, but North Carolinians have already shown that they are concerned with the ethical as well as the economic dimensions of our energy policies. A resolution opposing mountaintop removal coal mining that was passed by the Presbyterian Church USA in 2006 was initiated by North Carolina's Salem Presbytery -- the first Presbyterian group in America to voice opposition to mountaintop removal.

Whether or not our legislators ultimately join the Salem Presbytery in taking a pioneering stand against mountaintop removal coal mining, all North Carolinians should be paying attention to the important discussion opened by Harrison about where North Carolina's coal comes from.

And when it comes to our pocketbooks, we should be less concerned about which types of Central Appalachian mines are allowed to supply coal to North Carolina and more concerned with why Duke and Progress continue to rely almost entirely on Central Appalachian coal in the first place.

(Matthew F. Wasson, Ph.D., is director of programs for the Boone-based conservation organization Appalachian Voices.)