SHERRILLS FORD, N.C. — Neighbors have the chance to weigh in on plans to build a new natural gas power plant at the site of the current Marshall Steam Station in Catawba County.
The Department of Environmental Quality is hosting a public hearing on the proposed Duke Energy plant’s draft air quality permits at Lake Norman High School on Nov. 19 at 6 p.m.
The Marshall Steam Station has been operating as a coal-fired plant since 1965, and it’s set to retire two of its units by the end of 2028 and the remaining two by the end of 2031. The natural gas plant, which Duke Energy spokesperson Bill Norton said needs to be up and running before the coal plant retires, is shooting for a 2028 start date.
“At some [retiring coal] sites, we’re looking at nuclear, others, we’re looking at solar or batteries, or maybe a mix,” he said. “Natural gas makes the most sense for Marshall because we converted the existing coal units to run on coal or natural gas several years ago, so we already had that strong natural gas supply to the site.”
The Southern Environmental Law Center disagrees. The law firm believes to fight climate change utilities like Duke Energy should refrain from building new fossil fuel infrastructure and focus on renewables which are cleaner, safer, and don’t require long-term greenhouse gas emissions.
“You do not need natural gas to retire coal,” Senior SELC attorney, Munashe Magarira said. “There are other alternatives, particularly solar and other renewables that are paired with storage that can do the same sorts of jobs, both providing sort of around the clock, or closer around the clock energy, along with some of the other grid services.”
Of particular concern is the use of methane, the primary component in natural gas. While burning methane usually results in fewer CO2 emissions than burning coal, extracting, transporting and storing the gas often results in leaks. When methane enters the atmosphere, it has an impact on climate change that’s 80 times worse than CO2.
Norton said Duke Energy disagrees with the SELC’s assessment of emissions risk and instead believes natural gas is needed to maintain reliability and ramp up and down to follow energy demand. He also argues the fuel produces fewer pollutants than coal including SO2, NOx, and VOCs, all of which the EPA classifies as toxic.
When Channel 9′s climate reporter spoke with neighbors, who live just a block from the existing coal site, they explained their biggest concerns were that whatever was happening at the Marshall site was safe, especially when it came to the plume constantly rising out of the plant’s towers.
“If you think about the existing coal plant, it already meets state and federal regulations to keep neighbors and the environment protected,” Norton said. “This new natural gas facility is going to be even cleaner.”
Magarira said that’s an overstatement, while natural gas plants typically produce fewer pollutants, they’re still present, which is what the DEQ’s air quality permit seeks to address and limit.
“We would hope that the Department of Environmental Quality denies this permit, but short of that, imposes some conditions that protect the health and safety of the surrounding communities,” he said.
Other neighborhood concerns include traffic. Norton said the plant is mitigating that, by siting the new plant further from the road and installing a dedicated turn lane. He also said the plant will create less traffic because it will no longer need to bring in coal by rail.
Anyone who is not able to attend Tuesday’s hearing can submit public comment by email to DAQ.publiccomments@deq.nc.gov with “DukeMarshall.24A” in the subject line