"...At least a dozen speakers challenged him on global warming, air pollution and other environmental issues. Rogers responded to each question, though not always to the satisfaction of the environmental community.
He also responded to other shareholders who said Duke should not worry about environmental issues. "I'd just caution our company not to get caught up in all this global-warming business," said one.
The Carolinas Clean Air Coalition and other environmental groups protested outside the meeting at Duke's Energy Center in uptown Charlotte. They oppose the 800-megwatt coal unit under construction at Duke's Cliffside Steam Station in North Carolina as well as the 630-megawatt coal-gassification plant the company is building in Indiana and its proposed Lee Nuclear Station near Gaffney, S.C.Rogers clearly knew the issues were coming. Instead of giving his normal recap of how Duke had performed in the past year, his speech to the shareholders was about Duke's plans for future power generation. He again promised Duke will take most of the carbon out of its energy production by 2050.
Rogers defended the Cliffside project in Cleveland and Rutherford counties. He called the new unit a bridge plant to get Duke Power to the point where it can radically reduce its carbon footprint in the future. He cited the work on trapping carbon dioxide that will be accomplished at the new gassification plant. And he insisted that nuclear energy will be needed to provide energy without carbon.
