NC mining/energy panel ready to meet

North Carolina's new Mining and Energy Commission, created by state legislation this summer, will hold its first orientation meeting on Sept. 6.

The 12-member panel reforms the old state mining commission. It's charged with working with state staff to develop rules on oil and gas exploration, particularly the previously prohibited techniques of horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing or fracking.

The U.S. Geological Survey estimated this summer that N.C. shale formations, the deposits that fracking taps, holds gas that could supply the state for 5.6 years at 2010 usage rates. Earlier estimates had cited up to a 40-year supply.

A state study earlier this year concluded that fracking could be safe if properly regulated. That critical task will be overseen by a commission that, per the legislation that created it, is tilted toward mining and oil-and-gas professionals. Gov. Bev Perdue, House Speaker Thom Tillis, R-Mecklenburg, and Senate President Pro Tem Phil Berger, R-Rockingham, made the appointments:

Raymond Covington, a Guilford County real estate professional who also's part of a concern that negotiates oil and gas leases for property owners. (Tillis)

Charles Taylor, a council member in Sanford, part of the Triassic Basin in which most shale deposits are found. (Tillis)

William McNeely III, a sand-and-gravel miner in the mountains of Transylvania County. (Tillis)

Charles Holbrook, a former Chevron geologist who lives in Moore County. (Tillis)

George Howard, president of a Raleigh firm that restores waterways and a member of Triangle Land Conservancy. (Berger)

James Womack, a county commissioner in Lee County, also in the Triassic Basin. (Berger)

Ivan "Tex" Gilmore, a former longtime PCS Phosphate geologist in Beaufort County. (Berger)

Vikram Rao, executive director of the Research Triangle Energy Consortium. (Berger)

Jane Lewis-Raymond, general counsel of Piedmont Natural Gas in Charlotte. (Perdue)

Charlotte Mitchell, a Raleigh environmental lawyer and member of Triangle Land Conservancy. (Perdue)

Amy Pickle, a Raleigh attorney at Duke's Nicholas Institute of Environmental Policy Solutions and a member of the N.C. Environmental Management Commission. (Perdue)

Marva Price, an associate professor at Duke's School of Nursing and a member of the N.C. Public Health Commission. (Perdue)

Coal plant cleanup law benefits consumers, study says

North Carolina's 2002 Clean Smokestacks Act, which cracked down on pollution from coal-fired power plants, will save consumers money as it keeps them healthier, says a paper from Duke University.

Scholars at Duke's Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions found that complying with the state law put N.C. utilities ahead of the game in meeting two upcoming federal standards.

The Cross-State Air Pollution Rule, announced last year, reduces power-plant emissions that add to smog and fine-particle pollution. A second set of new standards place the first federal controls on mercury and other toxic emissions from coal-fired plants.

Because N.C. utilities have already paid for pollution controls to meet Clean Smokestacks, they and their customers will save money in meeting the new federal standards. Duke Energy and its new subsidiary, Progress Energy, plan to shut down older coal-fired units rather than upgrade them.

Expected costs of meeting the new federal standards will depend on how long pollution controls stay in service and how much it will cost to replace them.

Future savings for Duke Energy Carolinas customers, for example, range from $1.2 billion to $1.9 billion under the decades-long scenarios the paper analyzed. Those in Progress Carolinas territory would save $600 million to $1.1 billion. The savings drop, but stay in the hundreds of millions of dollars, when past spending under the state law is included.

Clean Smokestacks also kept people alive longer by giving them cleaner air to breathe, the paper says. It put the median monetary benefits of avoiding premature N.C. deaths at $6 billion to $16 billion, depending on two differing studies, from 2005 through 2011 -- several times more than customers paid for pollution controls.

Delay pig waste-to-energy mandate, utilities ask

It's not easy turning poultry litter and pig poop into economic electricity, North Carolina's power providers are finding.

Duke Energy's two Carolinas utilities reported Wednesday that they have agreed with farm and renewable-energy groups to support a delay in a state mandate to make electricity from poultry and swine wastes. The mandate, spelled out in a 2007 law, goes into effect this year.

The agreement supports a  request to the N.C. Utilities Commission to give electric suppliers another two years to comply with the law. They won't be able to meet the mandate in 2012 and 2013, the suppliers say.

The suppliers cited "overly optimistic" projections by swine waste developers, leading to contracts being canceled. Poultry waste projects, they say, have been afflicted by cost, financing, permitting and "commercial viability" problems.

The agreement reported to the commission Wednesday is among the Duke utilities, the N.C. Sustainable Energy Association, the N.C. Farm Bureau, the N.C. Pork Council and the N.C. Poultry Federation.

Under its terms, Duke would report its progress in securing swine and poultry power twice a year, set up a website to help energy developers and increase its solar-energy output for 2012 and 2013.

Duke drops industry rate-break plan

The N.C. Utilities Commission this week let Duke Energy withdraw its plan to offer industrial and commercial customers a temporary 6 percent rate cut.

Duke floated the idea in May, saying some of its biggest customers were struggling. The one-year test program would have cost Duke shareholders $13 million.

As part of a 7 percent N.C. rate hike in January, Duke had agreed to donate $11 million of shareholder money to help low-income residents with their energy bills.

NC WARN, the Durham advocacy group that frequently fights Duke, protested help for big customers. WARN argued the program was a "kickback scheme" intended to win support for its merger with Progress Energy. The commission's Public Staff, which advocates for consumers, investigated but took no immediate position.

Last week Duke withdrew the plan. It cited "overwhelming interest from customers" who collectively asked for more aid than Duke had budgeted. Duke said it will continue to look for ways to help customers with their energy bills.

Law firm trolling for Duke lawsuit

A Boston law firm that represents investors claiming securities violations is already looking for clients amid the debris of the Duke Energy merger.

Block & Leviton said it's "investigating possible breaches of fiduciary duties" by Duke's board, which canned its intended new CEO, former Progress Energy chief Bill Johnson, hours after closing the merger.

The firm noted Standard & Poor's placing Duke stock on a credit watch list soon after Johnson's abrupt departure and an investigation launched by N.C. Attorney General Roy Cooper.

Duke's stock has dropped about 5 percent between July 2, when the merger closed, and Wednesday's market close. It's up slightly on Thursday morning.

Progress investors joined a number of class-action lawsuits after the merger with Duke was announced in early 2011. All were settled within a few months.

With passions aflame now, law firms aren't likely to struggle to find aggrieved stockholders. 

"It appears that this action was pre-planned by the board of Duke and smells badly of dishonesty in the board's dealings with stockholders and, apparently, your commission," Duke, and former Progress, stockholder Philip Carter of Raleigh wrote the N.C. Utilities Commission last week.

He added: "I strongly urge the Commission to use its authority to investigate whether there was disingenuous communications between Duke's leadership and the Commission, its stockholders and the public."

S&P puts Duke on credit watch

Wall Street's reaction to the Duke Energy merger minus intended CEO Bill Johnson has been swift.

Standard & Poor's Financial Services has placed Duke's A- corporate credit ratings on its CreditWatch with negative implications "in response to abrupt change in executive leadership."

Hours after the $32 billion merger closed Monday, Duke stunned employees, regulators and analysts by announcing that CEO Jim Rogers would stay on as president, chief executive and chairman. Johnson had been set to become chief executive since the merger was announced in January 2011.

"The sudden shift in management raises concerns about effective corporate governance, successful handling of the anticipated merger integration, and the ongoing effective management of pending challenges that face the combined entity," said S&P credit analyst Dimitri Nikas.

Credit ratings are critical to utilities, which depend on capital markets to finance power plants and other infrastructure projects that can cost billions of dollars. Including Progress projects, Duke has about $5 billion in new power plants under construction.

S&P said it was also revising its CreditWatch implications on Progress Energy's BBB+ credit rating from positive to developing. The change includes Progress subsidiary Progress Energy Carolinas, which will continue to operate under Duke's ownership.

Standard & Poor said it would resolve the credit watch listing "in the near term" after more assessment of the implications of the leadership change.

Feds propose new NC wildlife refuge

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has proposed North Carolina's newest national wildlife refuge, a 23,000-acre sprawl protecting some of the nation's rarest habitats, Southern Appalachian bogs.

Small bogs are scattered across the mountains. They're often not part of other wetlands, but serve some of the same functions, absorbing floodwaters like sponges and slowly releasing the water. Five endangered species, including the little bog turtle (above), depend on them. Migratory birds and game animals like turkey and mink forage among them.

The proposal, which needs approval by the Fish and Wildlife director, takes a different approach from most federal refuges. It would be scattered across up to 30 different sites in 11 western North Carolina counties. And at least part of it would be held through easements or leases instead if outright purchases.

As always, the plan hinges on whether money is available and landowners willing to protect their land. The Nature Conservancy is among the groups that have already worked for years to protect some bogs, giving the proposal a head start.

The wildlife service will spend the next year soliciting public reaction and evaluating the proposal before sending the findings to Washington in 2013. Written comments are being taken now and  information sessions will be held in Hendersonville, West Jefferson, Franklin and Boone.

North Carolina has 10 national wildlife refuges covering nearly 420,000 acres. Only one, Pee Dee in Anson and Richmond counties, is in the western half of the state.