Tagged: Progress Energy

Duke Energy says it will close down a troubled nuclear plant in Florida – called Crystal River – rather than try to repair it at a cost of billions.  Making that decision has preoccupied Duke and its investors ever since the company merged with Progress Energy and inherited the Florida plant.  

"From the beginning of the merged company, the resolution of the nuclear plant issue has been among the company's top priorities, if not the company's top priority," says Duke Energy spokesman Mike Hughes. 

A small county on the Florida Gulf Coast is in a budget crisis because its largest taxpayer is refusing to pay up. Progress Energy Florida – which is now owned by Duke Energy – operates a coal and nuclear power plant complex that accounts for one-quarter of Citrus County's property tax revenues. But Duke Energy only paid half its tax bill last year and this week warned it'll do the same in 2013. WFAE's Julie Rose explains:

Duke and Progress Energy will not have to clean up seepages from fourteen coal ash ponds, according to a ruling from the North Carolina Environmental Management Commission.  Several environmental groups including the Riverkeeper Foundation say the utilities are breaking state rules by not stopping their coal ash ponds from leaking into ground water.   

Commission chairman Steve Smith says the vote was 9-to-2 in favor of Duke and Progress.