Trump administration grants Duke Energy $28.4M for NC coal plant

The Trump administration is giving Duke Energy a $28.4 million grant to upgrade a coal plant in North Carolina. 

Person County’s Roxboro plant is one of 13 projects across the country selected to receive grant funding from the U.S. Department of Energy, the agency announced last week. It’s intended to bolster domestic coal mining, support baseload power generation and improve energy infrastructure. 

“This funding supports previously planned critical upgrades that help ensure we can continue delivering reliable power to our North Carolina customers while keeping costs as low as possible,” Kendal Bowman, president of Duke Energy’s utility operations in North Carolina, said in a statement. 

The grant signifies the administration’s commitment to coal power, in which it’s investing $525 million nationwide to streamline production. It also reaffirms the move away from clean energy sources like wind and solar. 

Dan Crawford, senior director for public affairs at the North Carolina League of Conservation Voters, said using taxpayer dollars to prop up coal is “incredibly dumb and wasteful.”

“This follows a bigger payoff to kill clean wind in N.C., and shows the Trump administration only cares about rewarding oil, gas, coal and power companies, not helping ordinary working people struggling to pay their electric bills,” Crawford told NC Newsline in a statement. “We should be building more solar and wind, which are cheap, fast and clean, not risking our health and making costs go up for North Carolinians.”

The DOE is using the 1950 Defense Production Act — a Cold War-era measure giving the president emergency authority to control domestic industries — to categorize the projects as crucial to national security. 

Earlier this year, President Donald Trump invoked the Defense Production Act to strengthen energy production, transportation and infrastructure. He claimed the country’s “aging and constrained” electric grid poses an “increasing threat” to national defense.

“By investing in both coal generation and critical export infrastructure … the Energy Department is strengthening U.S. energy security, reinforcing strategic supply chains, and advancing American energy dominance,” U.S. Secretary of Energy Chris Wright said in a statement. 

Person County residents are already grappling with the building of a natural gas pipeline and a massive data center in their community. 

NC House lawmakers fast-track data center regulation bill

North Carolina House lawmakers last week passed legislation tying Duke Energy to fossil fuels until it’s able to replace coal and natural gas with nuclear power to ensure there’s enough baseload power available in the grid. 

Democrats voiced concerns about the availability and reliability of new nuclear power, and said the state should consider renewable energy sources like solar and wind, combined with battery storage.

The GOP majority shut down protests from their colleagues across the aisle. 

“Reliable baseload energy generation must stay online,” Rep. Dean Arp (R-Union) said during the floor debate. “Critics have offered no other option, only a mandate for an intermediate, intermittent solar and wind, which are not baseload generation.”

Senate Bill 730, the “Ratepayer Protection Act,” now awaits action in the state Senate.