The Charlotte-based energy company just can't seem to stay out of the news lately.
South Carolina has opened a new front in its water war with North Carolina, targeting Duke Energy Corp.s federal license for hydroelectric operations along the Catawba River.S.C. Attorney General Henry McMaster has filed to intervene in Dukes application for a new, 50-year license for its 11 reservoirs and 13 hydro facilities along the bi-state river.
McMaster argues the Charlotte-based energy company (NYSE:DUK) is basing its relicensing application on flawed data. In question: Dukes scientific models that predict when the river will suffer from serious droughts. Duke submitted an application in 2006 to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission that estimated the Catawbas currents would drop to its lowest levels for a combined four months out of a 51-year period.
But low-flow river conditions were recorded for 15 consecutive months as the region suffered from an extreme drought in the past two years, McMaster says.
Read the rest of this Charlotte Business Journal article here.
Here's a news story, from just over a year ago, about the Catawba River -- one of America's Most Endangered Rivers: