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CHARLOTTE -- Protestors marched through uptown Charlotte on Monday to rally against Duke Energy's construction of a new coal power plant about 60 miles west of the city.
The few hundred protestors, representing various environmental groups, marched to Gov. Bev Perdue’s Charlotte office on the way to Duke Energy headquarters. The demonstrators are asking the governor to step in and stop the construction of the Cliffside coal plant in Rutherford County and for her to honor her campaign promise and appoint a statewide energy advisor.
If the plant is built, they claim the expanded plant would send 6 million tons of carbon dioxide blowing over the Appalachian Mountains.
“In my first 50 years, I laid back and I thought you could write letters to congressmen and I thought you could write letters to your state legislators and get things done, well I’ve done that, and in my next 50 years, I’m going to take action, action is what it’s all about,” said Mickey McCoy, of Kentuckians for the Commonwealth, who say coal harvesting through mountaintop removal is detrimental to their neighborhoods.
In a letter to Duke Energy CEO Jim Rogers, the group has asked that the company turn all of its efforts toward climate protection through clean, efficient energy. A Duke Energy spokesperson responded by saying, "we believe Cliffside is necessary and needed. It will be efficient and allow us to decommission our older plants. We know we need to be living in a lower carbon world. This will help us get there."
The new coal plant will be cleaner and buy Duke Energy time to transition more energy production to green energy, but these protestors say it's a waste to invest any more money into coal power production.
Charlotte-Mecklenburg police officers had a very visible presence around uptown during the demonstration. There was no word of any problems.
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