Some Greenpeace protesters have climbed a smokestack that towers over a power plant near Asheville. According to Progress Energy, a handful of protesters scaled the column at the Asheville Power Plant in Arden Monday morning.
Greenpeace spokeswoman Keiller MacDuff said activists have secured themselves to devices including the coal loader and conveyer belts.
"We have 16 activists who have entered the Progress Energy power station in Asheville. Eleven arrests have been made. There are five more people who at this stage are a couple of hundred feet up from one of the smoke stacks here," said MacDuff.
Progess Energy is in the process of trying to merge with Duke Energy. The merger agreement to combine the two companies is subject to shareholder and regulatory approval. If approved, the merger will create the nation’s largest utility, with more than 7 million customers in six regulated service territories including North Carolina.
MacDuff said she's concerned about the proposed merger. She said Greenpeace thinks plants like the one in Asheville that use coal damage the environment. She says the remaining activists plan to unveil a banner on one of the smokestacks.
"They are definitely planning on unveiling quite a large banner that says "Duke Energy is this real progress?" It is a little pun on the name there and it asks for them to quit using coal now. What we are really asking is for Duke to stop using mountaintop removal coal, to invest in renewable energy, to really invest in renewable energy and not just talk about it and to phase out coal altogether by 2030," said MacDuff.
Progress Energy spokesman Scott Sutton said the utility's highest priority is to safely remove all of the protesters and protect the 400-megawatt plant that serves Progress customers in western North Carolina. He said police are continuing their efforts to remove the protesters.
