A look at the Triad’s biggest greenhouse gas polluters, including NC’s worst

Belews Creek’s nearly 7 million metric tons of discharged carbon dioxide accounted for more than two-thirds of the Triad’s greenhouse gas total for the year and pushed the facility past Duke’s Marshall Steam Station on Lake Norman as the heaviest emitter in North Carolina. Total energy generation increased 68% at Belews in 2021 while Marshall’s edged up 13%, noted Duke spokesman Ben Williamson. “Both sites used a significant amount of natural gas, but Belews operated more on coal in 2021 than Marshall did,” Williamson explained. “That is the reason Belews moved ahead of Marshall in (carbon dioxide) emissions.” Duke recently completed upgrades at Belews Creek that allow the plant to use coal, natural gas or a combination of both based on the price of the fuels. Using gas instead of coal reduces carbon pollution by about 40%, Marshall said, but the emissions still contribute to climate change. “Belews Creek Steam Station ranks high in emissions simply due to its size,” Williamson explained. “But in fact, it is one of the cleanest and most efficient coal plants in the U.S.”

The N.C. Utilities Commission has until the end of the month to approve a future energy mix for Duke that will allow the state to meet carbon dioxide reduction targets mandated in legislation passed by the General Assembly and signed into law last year by Gov. Roy Cooper. Environmental and climate advocates have criticized Duke for proposing a significant increase in natural gas capacity initially in its four proposed carbon plan options submitted to the utilities commission.

The company argues that adding gas facilities gives the company time to invest long-term in wind, solar and nuclear power. Intervenors in the proceedings, who insist Duke need not wait to go all-in on emission-free energy, have submitted alternative plans. Now it’s up to commissioners to pick an energy mix for reducing North Carolina’s carbon emissions 70% from 2005 levels by 2035, and to reach carbon-neutral status by the middle of the century. The climate legislation requires the commission to revisit the plan every two years. As Duke transitions to cleaner energy sources, Belews Creek is expected to be one of the company’s final two holdouts in the shift from emission-heavy coal-fired power production.

Duke announced early this year that it aims to reduce coal’s contribution to its energy production to less than 5% by 2030 and to eliminate the use of coal by 2035. Belews Creek, which opened in 1974, and the Cliffside Steam Station at the Rogers Energy Complex, which straddles the Cleveland County and Rutherford County lines, are expected to be the last of Duke’s facilities in the Carolinas to move on from coal-burning operations, according to the company’s timeline. As recently as 2005, coal accounted for more than half of Duke’s power generation in the Carolinas. The company says it has retired 56 coal units since 2010, and that coal-generated power now represents 16% of Duke’s production in the Carolinas. Each individual unit produces electricity by burning coal in a boiler that heats water to produce steam. The steam, under tremendous pressure, flows into a turbine, which spins a generator to produce electricity. A half-dozen Duke facilities in the Carolinas still use that process.

As approval of the carbon plan looms, Duke continues developing a lined landfill at Belews Creek for the disposal of nearly 12 cubic yards of coal ash, the carcinogen-laden byproduct of burning coal that had been stored in an unlined 270-acre basin at the site. The estimated $450 million project is a result of a 2020 settlement agreement and consent order between Duke, the N.C. Department of Environmental Quality, and community and environmental groups that sued the company over its coal-ash disposal at North Carolina facilities.

Seepage from the Belews Creek basin contaminated groundwater on plant property and on one adjoining tract, but no drinking water supplies or recreational waters were compromised, according to the company.

“We’re making great progress on basin closure,” Duke’s Williamson said this past week. “We have substantially completed the landfill’s first cell and, subject to receiving a permit to operate the landfill after further NCDEQ inspection, we expect the first placement of ash into the lined landfill in the second quarter of 2023.” The new landfill, which will be designed to hold more than 14 million cubic yards of ash, will stand 168 feet tall and rise about 125 feet above the adjacent Pine Hall Road. “We are also actively treating the groundwater beneath and beside the basin and it has already begun to improve,” Williamson added.

Duke predicts it will have moved all the coal ash at Belews Creek sometime between late 2031 and 2034.

Cleanup of groundwater and the monitoring of water quality at the site for three decades after the transfer of ash is completed is expected to cost an estimated $181 million. Meanwhile, the production of new ash will decline as coal is phased out, Williamson added.

After Belews Creek, natural-gas powered Duke Energy plants in Rockingham County were the second and third largest climate-related polluters in the Triad in 2021. The Dan River Steam Station in Eden was responsible for 1.6 million metric tons of carbon dioxide, followed by the Rockingham County Combustion Turbine in Reidsville with nearly 414,000 metric tons. About a mile south of the combustion turbine on N.C. 65, another Rockingham County facility, a Transco Pipeline station in Reidsville, also was among the region’s major sources of carbon dioxide last year. The facility, the fourth highest emitter in the Triad, is one in a series of compressors that filter and move natural gas along the pipeline’s route from Texas to New York City. After plummeting 87% from 2011 to 2017, carbon dioxide emissions from the Reidsville pipeline station soared 281% over the next four years, reaching 67,775 metric tons in 2021. The pipeline’s owner, Tulsa, Oklahoma-based Williams Corp., did not respond to the Journal’s inquiry about the increase. Overall, 2021 totals for the dozen Triad facilities marked a 39% increase in emissions compared to a year earlier. Across North Carolina, emissions were up about 8% in 2021 as the state came out of the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. Carbon dioxide had been declining steadily in the state since 2011. Electricity production accounts for about one-third of North Carolina’s greenhouse gas emissions (only transportation generates more), and the energy sector’s contribution is reflected in the EPA’s data. The 13 biggest carbon polluters in North Carolina are power plants.

After the Duke facilities and the pipeline station, the region’s biggest emitters in 2021 were manufacturing facilities using some level of natural gas. Here’s a look at the facilities, their carbon emissions and energy sources:

• Owens-Brockway Glass Container Inc., Lexington 65,986 metric tons Natural gas Qorvo, Greensboro Product: Semiconductors 45,019 metric tons Fuel oil, natural gas R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co., Winston-Salem 39,288 metric tons Fuel oil, natural gas, propane Electric Glass Fiber America, Lexington 38,723 metric tons Natural gas, propane Starpet Inc., Asheboro Products: Polymers for bottles, sheets and other applications 35,799 metric tons Natural gas Egger Wood Products, Linwood 34,005 metric tons Natural gas, wood and wood residuals Ingredion Inc., Winston-Salem Products: Ingredients for foods, beverages and drugs from corn, tapioca, wheat and potatoes 32,334 metric tons Natural gas Evonik Corp., Greensboro Product: Specialty chemicals 31,998 metric tons Natural gas

The Triad is now home to North Carolina’s largest single source of industrial emissions that contribute to climate change.

Duke Energy’s Belews Creek Steam Station, in the southeast corner of Stokes County, sent more greenhouse gases into the atmosphere in 2021 than any other facility in the state, according to the latest data from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

The coal-fired power plant on the banks of Belews Lake is one of 12 significant producers of climate-influencing pollution in the Triad, an analysis of EPA’s information found. Combined, those facilities generated 9.4 million metric tons of emissions, nearly all of it in the form of carbon dioxide, the largest human contributor to rising temperatures.

To put that amount in perspective, it’s the equivalent of tailpipe exhaust from about 2 million traditional passenger vehicles over the course of a year.

Belews Creek’s nearly 7 million metric tons of discharged carbon dioxide accounted for more than two-thirds of the Triad’s greenhouse gas total for the year and pushed the facility past Duke’s Marshall Steam Station on Lake Norman as the heaviest emitter in North Carolina.

Total energy generation increased 68% at Belews in 2021 while Marshall’s edged up 13%, noted Duke spokesman Ben Williamson.

“Both sites used a significant amount of natural gas, but Belews operated more on coal in 2021 than Marshall did,” Williamson explained. “That is the reason Belews moved ahead of Marshall in (carbon dioxide) emissions.”

Duke recently completed upgrades at Belews Creek that allow the plant to use coal, natural gas or a combination of both based on the price of the fuels. Using gas instead of coal reduces carbon pollution by about 40%, Marshall said, but the emissions still contribute to climate change.

“Belews Creek Steam Station ranks high in emissions simply due to its size,” Williamson explained. “But in fact, it is one of the cleanest and most efficient coal plants in the U.S.”

The N.C. Utilities Commission has until the end of the month to approve a future energy mix for Duke that will allow the state to meet carbon dioxide reduction targets mandated in legislation passed by the General Assembly and signed into law last year by Gov. Roy Cooper.

Environmental and climate advocates have criticized Duke for proposing a significant increase in natural gas capacity initially in its four proposed carbon plan options submitted to the utilities commission.

The company argues that adding gas facilities gives the company time to invest long-term in wind, solar and nuclear power. Intervenors in the proceedings, who insist Duke need not wait to go all-in on emission-free energy, have submitted alternative plans.

Now it’s up to commissioners to pick an energy mix for reducing North Carolina’s carbon emissions 70% from 2005 levels by 2035, and to reach carbon-neutral status by the middle of the century. The climate legislation requires the commission to revisit the plan every two years.

As Duke transitions to cleaner energy sources, Belews Creek is expected to be one of the company’s final two holdouts in the shift from emission-heavy coal-fired power production.

Duke announced early this year that it aims to reduce coal’s contribution to its energy production to less than 5% by 2030 and to eliminate the use of coal by 2035.

Belews Creek, which opened in 1974, and the Cliffside Steam Station at the Rogers Energy Complex, which straddles the Cleveland County and Rutherford County lines, are expected to be the last of Duke’s facilities in the Carolinas to move on from coal-burning operations, according to the company’s timeline.

As recently as 2005, coal accounted for more than half of Duke’s power generation in the Carolinas. The company says it has retired 56 coal units since 2010, and that coal-generated power now represents 16% of Duke’s production in the Carolinas.

Each individual unit produces electricity by burning coal in a boiler that heats water to produce steam. The steam, under tremendous pressure, flows into a turbine, which spins a generator to produce electricity. A half-dozen Duke facilities in the Carolinas still use that process.

As approval of the carbon plan looms, Duke continues developing a lined landfill at Belews Creek for the disposal of nearly 12 cubic yards of coal ash, the carcinogen-laden byproduct of burning coal that had been stored in an unlined 270-acre basin at the site.

The estimated $450 million project is a result of a 2020 settlement agreement and consent order between Duke, the N.C. Department of Environmental Quality, and community and environmental groups that sued the company over its coal-ash disposal at North Carolina facilities.

Seepage from the Belews Creek basin contaminated groundwater on plant property and on one adjoining tract, but no drinking water supplies or recreational waters were compromised, according to the company.

“We’re making great progress on basin closure,” Duke’s Williamson said this past week. “We have substantially completed the landfill’s first cell and, subject to receiving a permit to operate the landfill after further NCDEQ inspection, we expect the first placement of ash into the lined landfill in the second quarter of 2023.”The new landfill, which will be designed to hold more than 14 million cubic yards of ash, will stand 168 feet tall and rise about 125 feet above the adjacent Pine Hall Road.“We are also actively treating the groundwater beneath and beside the basin and it has already begun to improve,” Williamson added.

Duke predicts it will have moved all the coal ash at Belews Creek sometime between late 2031 and 2034.

Cleanup of groundwater and the monitoring of water quality at the site for three decades after the transfer of ash is completed is expected to cost an estimated $181 million.Meanwhile, the production of new ash will decline as coal is phased out, Williamson added.

After Belews Creek, natural-gas powered Duke Energy plants in Rockingham County were the second and third largest climate-related polluters in the Triad in 2021.

The Dan River Combined Cycle Station in Eden was responsible for 1.6 million metric tons of carbon dioxide, followed by the Rockingham County Combustion Turbine in Reidsville with nearly 414,000 metric tons.

About a mile south of the combustion turbine on N.C. 65, another Rockingham County facility, a Transco Pipeline station in Reidsville, also was among the region’s major sources of carbon dioxide last year. The facility, the fourth highest emitter in the Triad, is one in a series of compressors that filter and move natural gas along the pipeline’s route from Texas to New York City.

After plummeting 87% from 2011 to 2017, carbon dioxide emissions from the Reidsville pipeline station soared 281% over the next four years, reaching 67,775 metric tons in 2021.

The pipeline’s owner, Tulsa, Oklahoma-based Williams Corp., did not respond to the Journal’s inquiry about the increase.

Overall, 2021 totals for the dozen Triad facilities marked a 39% increase in emissions compared to a year earlier. Across North Carolina, emissions were up about 8% in 2021 as the state came out of the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. Carbon dioxide had been declining steadily in the state since 2011.

Electricity production accounts for about one-third of North Carolina’s greenhouse gas emissions (only transportation generates more), and the energy sector’s contribution is reflected in the EPA’s data. The 13 biggest carbon polluters in North Carolina are power plants.

After the Duke facilities and the pipeline station, the region’s biggest emitters in 2021 were manufacturing facilities using some level of natural gas. Here’s a look at the facilities, their carbon emissions and energy sources:

• Owens-Brockway Glass Container Inc., Lexington
• 65,986 metric tons
• Natural gas
• Qorvo, Greensboro
• Product: Semiconductors
• 45,019 metric tons
• Fuel oil, natural gas
• R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co., Winston-Salem
• 39,288 metric tons
• Fuel oil, natural gas, propane
• Electric Glass Fiber America, Lexington
• 38,723 metric tons
• Natural gas, propane
• Starpet Inc., Asheboro
• Products: Polymers for bottles, sheets and other applications
• 35,799 metric tons
• Natural gas
• Egger Wood Products, Linwood
• 34,005 metric tons
• Natural gas, wood and wood residuals
• Ingredion Inc., Winston-Salem
• Products: Ingredients for foods, beverages and drugs from corn, tapioca, wheat and potatoes
• 32,334 metric tons
• Natural gas
• Evonik Corp., Greensboro
• Product: Specialty chemicals
• 31,998 metric tons
• Natural gas