Call NC wood questions

Two groups of Appeal NC Wood Court Two environmental groups are trying to turn the utilities, the Commission's decision, which would allow Duke Energy harvesting and burning trees for fuel for power plants. NC Utilities Commission said in October that Charlotte-based Duke can use the size of trees, to clarify the types of wood, which can be used under state law for 2007 of renewable energy. But the Southern Environmental Defense Center and Environmental Defense Fund have appealed to the NC Court of Appeals seeking to block the plan.

"The decision of the Commission allows companies to slash and burn forests in our state, no doubt," said Will McDow, a specialist in wood biomass with the Environmental Defense Fund said in a statement. "To give unlimited access to burn thousands of hectares of natural forest is unwise." Prior to the decision of the committee, Duke argued that green energy state law allows any type of wood, including whole trees, cut into fuel.

If the fuel is limited to wood waste under the law, the company said it would not have enough biomass fuel for power plants. North Carolina utilities are required to produce 12.5 percent of its energy from renewable sources. The commission agrees and has determined that the trees all chopped and mixed with coal could be used to support the operation of coal-fire plant Buck Duke in Rowan County and the Lee plant in Williamston, South Carolina Duke said Lee Buck and together consume less than 100,000 tons of wood per year, these walls.