NC lawmakers seek ‘shot clock’ to speed up permitting of replacement power plants
Environmental regulators would face a “shot clock” when considering water quality impacts from some new power plants under a proposal advanced Wednesday in the state legislature.
The time limits would apply when Duke Energy seeks to build a new power plant where one already existed. In practice, that will likely apply to the six North Carolina sites where Duke wants to retire coal-fired power plants.
Duke has two ongoing proposals where water quality certifications would be subject to the new time limits. At its Marshall Plant in Catawba County, Duke wants to replace two coal-fired units with a pair of natural gas turbines. And at the Roxboro plant in Person County, Duke is proposing to replace a coal plant with a pair of natural gas plants.
N.C. Department of Environmental Quality staff would first have 30 days to decide if a permit application is complete. Regulators would then have 60 additional days to approve or deny the permit if there’s no public hearing — and 90 days if staff holds one. If staff feel to meet that deadline, they would need to waive the water quality certification requirement.
DEQ officials were concerned about previously discussed language, which would have applied to all new energy projects in all locations, Sen. Paul Newton said Wednesday during a Senate Agriculture, Energy and Environment Committee meeting. Newton, a Cabarrus County Republican and former North Carolina state president of Duke Energy, introduced the amended provision to House Bill 385.
Regulators said it would be particularly difficult to review the water quality impact of geographically large projects, for example, a 100-acre solar panel project, within the allotted time, Newton said. Wednesday’s language was a compromise, only limiting the review period on projects where Duke wants to replace existing generating sources like coal plants with something new, like natural gas or nuclear plants on the same site.
“It’s clearly been studied, the coal plant’s been running for decades, the water temperatures that come from a coal plant are much higher than those that come from a nuclear plant. So they (DEQ) don’t have any problem with a shot clock under that sort of scenario where there’s existing or former energy generation sites,” Newton said Wednesday.
The remaining Duke coal-fired power plant sites are likely to continue playing a role in the state’s energy future, given existing infrastructure to move the power they generate into homes and businesses across North Carolina.
Public hearings will take place over the next week to inform the N.C. Utilities Commission’s consideration of Duke’s two projects, two natural gas turbines at the Catawba County plant and the first of two planned natural gas plants at the Roxboro site.
“We support an efficient and constructive regulatory process and thank legislators for helping us provide cleaner energy to meet the power needs of our growing state. We are committed to ensuring the public and environment around our power plants continue to remain protected, as they are today,” Bill Norton, a Duke Energy spokesman, wrote in an email to The News & Observer.
The proposed plants would need multiple other regulatory approvals before becoming reality, including a finding of public convenience and necessity from the Utilities Commission and air quality permits from DEQ.
Move follows other ‘shot clock’ provisions
The proposal comes after legislation last year limited the time period for the review of several other environmental permits.
Such limits have the effect of politicizing the regulatory process, said Brooks Rainey Pearson, a Southern Environmental Law Center lobbyist. DEQ staff will naturally prioritize the review of projects where their review period must conclude within a set time period, Rainey Pearson said, meaning other permits are bound to linger.
“If you’re picking which permits get to jump to the front of the line, that’s the definition of choosing winners and losers,” Rainey Pearson said.
In the state budget, lawmakers limited how long DEQ officials can review air permits to 270 days for a major modification and 90 days for a minor modification for an air permit, after which the applicant can start a contested case hearing.
And in last year’s regulatory reform bill, legislators introduced a similar “shot clock” for water quality certifications for dredging projects and projects like pipelines that involve the distribution of fuel. That provision was, in part, an effort to help hasten approval of the MVP Southgate pipeline project, for which DEQ twice denied the water quality certification.
The deadlines under that provision are the same ones that would apply to some power plants under House Bill 385.
“They did that for MVP, and they’re doing this for Duke’s natural gas plants,” Rainey Pearson said.
House Bill 385’s next stop is the Senate Judiciary Committee, followed by the Senate Rules Committee. If it is approved by both of those, the full Senate would vote on it before returning the legislation to the House.
This story was produced with financial support from the Hartfield Foundation and Green South Foundation, in partnership with Journalism Funding Partners, as part of an independent journalism fellowship program. The N&O maintains full editorial control of the work. If you would like to help support local journalism, please consider signing up for a digital subscription, which you can do here.
This story was originally published June 6, 2024 at 7:00 AM with the headline "NC lawmakers seek ‘shot clock’ to speed up permitting of replacement power plants."