Duke University researchers issued a study Monday warning that tons of ash from coal-burning power plants are polluting North Carolina's drinking water with arsenic, selenium, cadmium and other toxins.

The report is part of the fallout from the December 2008 dam spill in Tennessee that focused public attention on the risks associated with storing coal ash in impoundments and retaining ponds. Environmental groups since then have been urging federal and state agencies to regulate coal ash pits as hazardous waste.

Duke researchers wrote that coal ash residues "represent one of the largest industrial waste streams in the U.S. and are not classified as hazardous waste."

"Our data clearly show high contaminant levels that suggest the need for enhanced removal/wastewater treatment," Duke researchers wrote. "The results of this study have significant implications for hundreds of similar sites across the US given that CCR [coal combustion residue] storage facilities continuously generate contaminants via leaching and transport to nearby hydrological systems."

Sixteen Greenpeace activists were arrested today after they broke into a Progress Energy power plant complex in Asheville before dawn to protest the destruction and damage caused by coal-burning power plants.

Some of the protesters, equipped with harnesses and climbing gear, scaled equipment and were dangling from nets, according to local news coverage.

They were arrested after unfurling a banner 400 feet above the ground on a smoke stack that read: "Duke Energy: The climate needs real Progress."

"They're all experienced climbers," said Greenpeace spokeswoman Keiller MacDuff. "Non-violent civil disobedience of this type does bear some inherent risk, which is why it's so courageous of these activists to put themselves in these positions."

MacDuff said Greenpeace is highlighting the environmental damage caused by Raleigh-based Progress because the company is in the midst of a corporate merger with Charlotte-based Duke Energy, which will result in the largest electric utility in the country.

Progress Energy this week is retiring the first of several coal-burning power plants as part of a conversion to cleaner-burning natural gas.

On Saturday the Raleigh-based power company is shuttering its 62-year-old W.H. Weatherspoon Power Plant near Lumberton, about 100 miles south of Raleigh. 

Progress plans to retire 11 coal-burning units at four sites in North Carolina by 2013. Those units will be replaced by three gas-burning plants, one of which went online this year.

Natural gas produces about half the greenhouse gases of coal and virtually no mercury, a potent neurotoxin that is linked to birth defects.

Progress Energy today fired up a new power plant as the power company shifts from burning coal to using cleaner fuels to generate electricity.

The Raleigh-based electric company today commissioned a gas-fired power plant into service in Richmond County. The $575 million, 600-megawatt unit had been in development and construction for about four years.

It's the first of several gas-fired power plants the company plans to build as it phases out older, dirtier power plants. Progress abandoned building new coal-burning plants several years ago and subsequently moved to start shutting down older plants in anticipation of stricter environmental regulations that would raise the cost of using coal to generate power.

Progress Energy said today that it will shut down its coal-fired power plant near Lumberton this fall, several years ahead of schedule.

In late 2009, Progress announced plans to mothball 11 coal-burning power plants in North Carolina by 2017. The plants slated for closure are at four sites: the W.H. Weatherspoon plant near Lumberton, the Cape Fear Plant in Moncure in Chatham County, the L.V. Sutton plant near Wilmington and the H.F. Lee plant near Goldsboro.

The W.H. Weatherspoon plant employs 51 people. Progress said in a release today that more than half those employees will go to work at other company sites, while others will retire. The company continues to work with the remaining employees.

The W.H. Weatherspoon plant, built in 1949, has three coal-fired units that generate 170 megawatts of power.

Wind. Solar. Nuclear. Coal. Natural gas. Can all of these be considered clean energy?

In President Obama's State of the Union address, he challenged the nation to set a new goal that 80 percent of America's electricity will come from clean energy sources by 2035. Read reactions to the Obama's new goal.

UNC-Chapel Hill has pledged to phase out the use of coal by 2020.

This will require a significant change in how the university produces much of the power it uses to heat and chill the campus. 

The goal is to move eventually to biomass - dried wood, essentially. But first, the university needs to test its boilers to make sure they can handle this new fuel.

The change would move UNC-CH closer to its goal of being carbon neutral by 2050.

Here's the story.

A top NASA climatologist huddled under a tent Tuesday to talk about coal and global warming.

With UNC-Chapel Hill's massive coal-burning cogeneration plant as a backdrop, outspoken NASA scientist James Hansen pushed the university - and others - to take the lead in weaning off of coal as an energy source.

Hansen, who gave a speech and spoke in some classes as well this week, gamely donned a gaudy, yellow "Beyond Coal" T-shirt - the same as those worn by about 15 sign-toting activists - to speak Tuesday as a guest of the local Sierra Club.

That's the organization whose lobbying helped prompt UNC Chancellor Holden Thorp to recently form a new energy task force to examine the university's use of coal and other issues.

Hansen, an internationally recognized expert on global climate change, spoke as rain dropped and slushy ice crunched underfoot. The crux of his argument: The United States needs to wean itself entirely off of coal use, and sooner rather than later. Universities, he said, must take the lead in this venture.

Progress Energy said today it plans to build a natural-gas power plant near Wilmington to replace three coal-burning units at the site that are being shut down to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and other pollution.
The 600-megawatt plant will cost about $600 million and begin generating electricity in 2014. The Raleigh-based electric utility filed its plan today with state regulators.
The conversion of the Sutton plant near Wilmington from coal to natural gas is part of Progress's plan to close down 11 coal-burning units at four sites in the state as it shifts to greener strategies.

Progress Energy today proposed shutting down 11 coal-burning power plants in the state, a move that signals the beginning of the end of the dirty coal era that has defined the state's electricity production for decades.

The Raleigh-based electric utility is moving to shutter older coal-burning plants as it becomes increasingly expensive to retrofit aging facilities to trap pollution. Additionally, power companies across the country are anticipating stringent greenhouse gas restrictions to be imposed soon by Congress that will have the effect of penalizing coal-dependent utilities like Progress.

More than half the state's electricity is produced by coal, an abundant domestic source of energy that's lost favor because it emits carbon dioxide, believed to be a major contributor to global warming. The United States has more than 200 years of coal reserves, but in recent years dozens of power companies have scrapped plans to build new coal power plants in the environmental backlash against global warming.