Yesterday, I spoke in Durham at both the 2024 Durham Carbon Plan Rally and inside in front of the NC Utilities Commission. I wrote this one speech to basically use for both. I was excited to find the details about California’s use of sustainable energy during a break for the stenographer.
I was disappointed that four of the seven commissioners were not present for the public. Perhaps this is a reflection of their intent to do nothing to help us reach carbon reduction goals.
Thank you for those who included me in part of the planning and allowing me to speak and share pictures of those I love: Annie Brown, Danielle Bailey-Lash and David Hairston. They were officially entered into the public record as my evidence.
My name is Caroline Rutledge Armijo. I live in Greensboro. I am the founder of The Lilies Project and I work in my family law practice in Walnut Cove. I am a community leader in the frontline community surrounding Belews Creek Power Station.
Today I have photos of three of my fellow community leaders who have died way too young. Annie Brown, 68, Danielle Bailey-Lash 45 and David Hairston, 63. They do not represent all of the people who have passed away over the last decade since the Dan River Spill - just those in our group. The number of premature deaths in our community is far too great to count.
On the day of David’s funeral, environmental leaders from the Southeast gathered in Walnut Cove. The same day, Duke Energy rolled out publicity for nuclear at Belews Creek in the Winston-Salem Journal. While Duke touted an exaggerated number of jobs that typically go to out-of-state workers, who live in camp sites, they minimized the need for solar jobs. There was no mention of nuclear waste. And they buried the most startling fact - they plan to burn coal at Belews Creek until 2036. One year after their original plan to retire the plant. Six years after the Carbon Plan goal of reducing carbon emissions by 70% by 2030.
Our County Commissioners welcome the nuclear plant, but none of the elected officials live in the impacted community and their views do not reflect the views of frontline community members.
Duke Energy plans to do nothing at Belews Creek until 2034, which is when they HOPE to have the SMR online. That is an ambitious deadline considering it will be the first permitted in the country and numerous projects have failed to gain permits or been abandoned. Actual planning-to-operation time could take decades. The article doesn’t include the waste storage that would need to be managed for 200,000 years. We are also at risk for housing waste from other facilities without the benefit of every producing any energy. Stokes County is not a toxic dumping ground. The cost of nuclear is astronomical while renewables’ price tags continue to plummet.
Georgia had a nuclear reactor go online yesterday. Utilities are excited, but I want to point out it was pitched 15 years ago. It is seven years late and $20 billion over budget. Rates have skyrocketed. North Carolinians are already shocked as their rates have tripled in some places do to extreme weather this past February. These SMRs haven’t even been approved yet.
I am dismayed that the Utilities Commission would find it acceptable to allow Duke Energy to postpone real solutions that we can build now. Instead Duke suppresses and chokes the demand of solar across the state. From 2022-2023, we only had 2% solar growth. Florida 28%; Texas solar grew by 25% the same year. Relying on renewables is doable and happening in other states. (1) California used 100% sustainable energy the last 25 or 32 days.
Perhaps Texas learned from their disaster when natural gas failed to provide electricity during a cold streak creating a state of emergency. I also experienced Duke’s unannounced rolling black outs on Christmas Eve 2022. It was the first day of the cold snap. Not even 24 hours of below freezing temperatures. A decade earlier we were in the same house with temperatures below freezing for over ten days. We never lost power. But we did within 24 hours since Duke switched Belews Creek over to 50/50 coal and natural gas. We now know that natural gas is unreliable in extreme weather and we now experience extreme weather on a daily basis.
I have no words for what we watched in horror during 2023. And this weekend’s tornados. There were well over 100 confirmed in the Midwest. Climate change is our new reality. This February was the warmest month on record, a whopping 7 degrees increase in the United States. Duke can no longer determine its own fate. We desperately need you, the Utilities Commission, to demand Duke meets the 70% reduction by 2030.
Sarah, the Saura Princess, stands outside the Museum of History in Downtown Raleigh. Her remains were discovered in the bend across the Dan River from the Belews Creek Power Plant. This is sacred land that deserves to be protected. A new State Forest adjoins the property. A branch of the Mountains to Sea Trail is waiting to see if Duke gets it permit, eager to develop recreational facilities on the land.
Radioactive contamination of the Dan River would endanger thousands of peoples' drinking water, our wildlife, and the health of all who enjoy these waters. Local economies that rely on river recreation would be devastated. Life as we have known it would be changed forever.
After fifty years of economic injustice, our citizens deserve your decision to pivot towards a healthy and prosperous future that benefits all of us, not just Duke’s shareholders. You have the power to make the change our entire world deserves and demands.
1-https://assets.ctfassets.net/cxgxgstp8r5d/5Vty7kLXwx4csHEm4ztlJ7/a9f69694c2af467387cb3c088f171127/2024WindSolar_Edited.pdf