$98 million bond to appeal a Duke Energy power plant permit gets legal challenge

A Durham advocacy group has challenged the constitutionality of a North Carolina statute that lets the state Utilities Commission require bonds to appeal approval of power plant projects.

NC WARN filed the lawsuit Wednesday in Wake County Superior Court after the utilities panel required a $98 million bond for WARN to appeal construction of a new Duke Energy power plant in Asheville.

Duke had argued that months of appeals by WARN, a frequent critic of the utility, could drive up costs of the $1 billion project by up to $250 million.

WARN says the requirement, which is part of a 1965 law, blocks citizens’ access to the courts. No other state requires bonds in such cases, it says.

A commission spokesman had not seen the lawsuit and had no comment Wednesday.

WARN also challenged 2015 legislation that fast-tracked a commission permit to build the Duke plant. The legislation sponsored by former Sen. Tom Apodaca, a Hendersonville Republican, set a 45-day approval process.

The commission approved the permit in February.

WARN has tried to tie the natural gas-fired Asheville power plant to climate change, arguing that drilling for gas releases planet-warming greenhouse gases. The Utilities Commission would not allow testimony on that claim by a WARN witness.

The group is represented in the litigation filed Wednesday by Duke University’s Environmental Law & Policy Clinic.

This story was originally published October 12, 2016 at 11:55 AM with the headline "$$98 million bond to appeal a Duke Energy power plant permit gets legal challenge."