Energy in the News

ASHEVILLE — A decision by Progress Energy and Buncombe County commissioners to terminate a lease of county-owned property in Woodfin marks the end of controversial plans by the utility to use the land for a power plant or other energy-related use.

Commissioners voted unanimously last week to approve a lease termination agreement submitted by the company. The decision comes eight months after the board agreed to lease 78 acres in Woodfin for $1 a year for an oil-fired power production facility.

Announcement of the earlier decision drew widespread opposition from environmental groups and North Buncombe residents who argued the power plant would pollute the air and that other options, such as conservation and renewable energy sources, should be explored.

Nathan Ramsey, Commissioners chairman, said he still contends that the old county landfill property was a good location for a power plant. The region needs new sources of energy as demand for electricity grows, he said.

“There is no perfect place to locate that type of facility,” Ramsey said. “Our county property was probably as good as any.”

Plans for the “peaking” power plant, designed to produce electricity during periods of peak demand in the summer and winter, were shot down in April by the Woodfin Board of Adjustment. Progress Energy could have appealed the decision in court but decided against it.

Change in position

At the time, the company said it planned to hold on to the lease and possibly use the land for another energy-related purpose. But Progress Energy spokesman Mike Hughes said Friday the company decided, in part because of community opposition, not to use the property and to give up the lease.

“We believe giving up the lease is in the best interest of the region at this time,” Hughes said.

However, he said the company would continue to look at other possible power plant sites in Western North Carolina and in other parts of its service region to meet the demand for electricity. But no potential plant sites have been identified, he said.

Avram Friedman, director of the Canary Coalition, a clean air advocacy group based on Sylva, praised the termination of the lease.

“They should have done it a long time ago to regain any credibility in the eyes of the public on energy policy and decisions,” he said.

Friedman and others have long decried how Progress Energy and the county negotiated the lease behind closed doors.

While the negotiations were ongoing for more than two years, the public didn’t learn of the plans until they were announced in December.

“I think the lesson that needs to be learned — and was learned — is that the public should not and cannot be bypassed in making important decisions that affect our lives,” Friedman said. “If it was a project that was worthy, it should have gone through due process like any other project on public land.”

Ramsey said he now agrees that commissioners should have put the proposed lease before the public prior to a deal being struck.

“The one regret is we should have come out earlier and said this is the problem (a need for more electricity) the community faces,” he said. “We could have done a heck of a better job and put it out to the community.”

Future needs

Ramsey said he holds hope in the Community Energy Advisory Council formed by Progress Energy in the wake of the Woodfin plant defeat. The utility said the council — comprised of local environmentalists, business representatives, county officials and community members — would provide advice on how it can meet the region’s power needs in a reliable, affordable and environmentally friendly way.

Hughes said Progress Energy is pursuing a “balanced approach” to meeting energy needs that includes more efficiency, renewable and alternative sources and new power plants.

“And we believe we must pursue all three elements of the balance simultaneously,” he said.

Progress Energy said it needed the Woodfin plan to help replace power that will be lost when a contract with an Ohio-based utility expires at the end of 2009.

Hughes said it now plans to contract with Atlanta-based Southern Co. to make up for the loss of electricity but still must find ways to meet its long-term needs.

Friedman said that if the utility proposes another power plant in WNC, “They will meet the same kind of opposition.”