It's time to pay the piper.

Belews Creek Power Station from nearby cove. Photo jkm.

"All of the company's [Duke Energy's] waste ponds — sometimes referred to as ash basins or ash ponds — are in violation of state or federal clean-water laws, leaching or discharging potentially toxic heavy metals into surface water or groundwater.

"Among them is the Belews Creek power plant's massive, unlined ash pond filled with the waste of spent coal. These ponds typically host potential contaminants such as arsenic, cadmium, lead, mercury, chromium and selenium. Health risks posed by these elements include cancer and neurological damage. Conservation groups have warned for years that these unlined pits contaminate groundwater — a risk, they say, that should raise red flags in Stokes County, where many households use well water."

Click here to read Bertrand M. Gutierrez's entire piece in the Wednesday, April 23, 2014 edition of the Winston-Salem Journal.

IT IS TIME TO PAY THE PIPER

As I pointed out in my issue statement on Natural Resources, the North Carolina Constitution sets forth the policy that state has a duty to protect the state's air and its waters from pollution, such as those coming from Duke's coal fired plants.

North Carolina consumers have enjoyed relatively cheap power for decades and utility shareholders excellent dividends for decades, but in doing so have been poisoning our air, water and farmland resources.

See hill of coal (at bottom) waiting to be burned. Photo jkm.

The big question now before the courts, the State Utility Commission, and the legislative and executive branches of state government will be who pays for the cleanup and how much cleanup is necessary? Should Duke and its shareholders bear the cost? They certainly avoided many costs and earned great investment returns from selling abundant, cheap power.

Should the state taxpayers bear the burden? Over the years, regulators had a cozy relationship with the utilities and approved many of the processes used to provide the power. To charge the company, when it was following the rules, would be considered by many unfair and perhaps even unlawful. (As an aside, the company should be required to pay the full cost of any cleanup, remediation, and costs to towns and farmers affected by failures to comply with laws and regulations.)

That leaves the businesses, homeowners, renters and farmers -- the ratepayers -- who benefitted for decades from receiving power below its actual cost, if adequate air and water protections had been in place. But wait, these folks relied on the state and the utilities to create the power in a safe manner. They paid their power bills. They invested in water heaters, homes, and heat pumps based on existing power rates.

This situation came about because of the cozy relationships among: Raleigh politicians who relied on big donations from millionaire investors and utility PACs for re-election; regulators in the

Duke Coal Ash Pond after spill, Photo Gerry Broome, AP.

Department of Environment and Natural Resources and the State Utilities Commission who were
urged or commanded to go easy on utilities whose low power rates helped attract business and industry to the state; and citizens who pushed cutting government and leaving regulation to free market forces.

The one thing we should not do is leave the solution to this dilemma to the crowd of Raleigh politicians who feed at the corporate trough, who give big tax breaks to millionaires and mega-corporations while raising taxes on (and cutting benefits to) working and middle class families. We can be pretty sure where those politicians and their cronies will come down.

As one can see, the answers are not simple. I can only promise you that I will do my best to develop and support a fair and balanced approach to protecting our air, water and land resources, protecting our workers and consumers, all the while making North Carolina the best state in the nation in which to live, work, and do business.

Link to John Motsinger for State Senate web site.