Environmental Organizations Respond to Duke Energy’s Plans for a Massive Methane Gas Buildout in Davie and Davidson Counties
For Release: July 29, 2026
Contacts:
Nicole Eastman, Riverkeeper, Yadkin Riverkeeper
nicole@yadkinriverkeeper.org, 330-861-8387
Shelley Robbins, Senior Decarbonization Manager, the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy
shelley@cleanenergy.org
Crystal Norford, Environmental Justice Organizer/Researcher, Clean Water for North Carolina
crystal@cwfnc.org
After almost a year of quietly targeting Davie and Davidson Counties for the next two installments of their massive methane gas-fired power plant buildout, Duke Energy has officially announced their plans for this harmful development.
Owning roughly 1,600 acres of tracts of land in both Davidson and Davie Counties, separated by the Yadkin River, Duke wants to build two massive methane gas-fired power plants, totaling almost 3,000 megawatts in Davie County, and a massive, untested first-of-its-kind “enhanced” liquified natural gas (ELNG) facility in Davidson County. Unlike regular LNG facilities, an ELNG facility would constantly be liquefying and vaporizing gas, creating pollution while doing so. This development would necessitate a roughly 3-mile methane gas pipeline under the Yadkin River to connect the gas plants to the ELNG facility.
Duke is already in the process of building three of the same type of methane gas-fired power plants in Person County, NC and in Anderson County, SC. What Duke fails to reveal in this announcement is the true impact this type of development will have on the air and water, public health, and environmental resilience of these counties. This development will strip away the natural character of the region, remove areas of Perkins Game Land from preservation and public use, industrialize this stretch of the Yadkin River, and fill the air with health compromising air pollutants, all at the expense of the ratepayers. Further, the plants would attract more data centers to the area, which will industrialize western Davidson and eastern Davie Counties even more.
To cool these power plants, millions of gallons of water could be pulled from the Yadkin River each day. A smaller amount of warmer and less biologically diverse water would be discharged back into the river, potentially causing thermal pollution that could result in increased water temperatures, depletion of dissolved oxygen levels, and suitable conditions for harmful algal bloom growth. Increased levels of health compromising air pollutants such as Nitrogen Oxides (NOx) and fine particulate matter (PM2.5) would pollute the air for nearby schools, churches, and neighborhoods. Increased exposure to these toxic pollutants can lead to worsening asthma, respiratory infections, heart damage, cardiovascular disease, and other health issues. If the air emissions from this infrastructure push the region over federal air quality limits, future economic development could be stunted, preventing new industries that bring more jobs and sustainable growth from coming to the area.
Both counties and the Yadkin River are already under attack by past and future fossil fuel development including construction of the Transco Southeast Supply Enhancement Pipeline Project (a massive methane gas pipeline and Compressor Station expansion in Davidson County), legacy coal ash storage from the Duke Energy Buck Steam Station, and ongoing threats of data center development throughout the watershed. The Yadkin River is already stressed due to increased development and stormwater runoff, industrial agricultural pollution, and the resulting nutrient and sediment pollution. This industrial energy complex will exacerbate the challenges the river faces and change the rich natural and historic character of this section of the Yadkin River. The river has supported enough energy infrastructure over the years from damming miles of river to support hydroelectric energy to facing coal ash contamination from the Buck Steam Station. Adding these massive gas plants and an untested ELNG facility could be the tipping point for the health and environmental wellbeing of the region and the river.
Environmental groups across North Carolina, including Yadkin Riverkeeper, Clean Water for North Carolina, Appalachian Voices, the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, and the Southern Environmental Law Center are working in coalition to stop this harmful development. Organizers and experts from these groups are working alongside residents to protect the region from this fossil fuel attack. Learn more here: Protect Davidson and Davie Counties – Clean Water for North Carolina
Statements from coalition organizations:
“These gas plants and the associated ELNG facility are not needed. Duke is already building three new giant gas plants, none of which have even started hitting our bills. Further, Duke is hiding the true size, cost, and impact of these facilities behind confidential filings. The ELNG facility would have to be massive, perhaps the largest LNG facility in the country unrelated to export, in order to completely support both of the gas plants. And as a first-of-a-kind configuration, it would be phenomenally risky and expensive. Davidson County and Davie County citizens deserve better.”- Shelley Hudson Robbins, Senior Decarbonization Manager at the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy
“This proposed Duke Energy industrial complex is the largest threat to the Yadkin River right now. We have seen the impacts of fossil fuel infrastructure on the river since the company began storing coal ash at the Buck Steam Station in the 1950s and testing showed contaminated drinking water wells in the 2010s. Yadkin Riverkeeper will challenge these methane power plants and the ELNG facility and continue advocating for the safeguarding of the Yadkin River for all the communities that rely on it.”- Nicole Eastman, Riverkeeper at Yadkin Riverkeeper
“Duke Energy is purposefully obscuring the true impacts that this industrial energy complex would have on the surrounding communities and environment. By gutting the rural character of this land, and industrializing this natural, forested stretch of the Yadkin River, this excessive fossil fuel development would reshape the region for decades to come. The residents of Davie and Davidson Counties deserve well-planned growth that prioritizes sustainability and public health, not pollution and corporate profit. We will continue to support and amplify the voices of residents as this fight continues.”- Crystal Norford, Environmental Organizer/Researcher at Clean Water for North Carolina.
“Duke Energy's proposed project will require the installation of a pipeline that will be devastating for the Yadkin River. Duke can cross waterways using methods such as boring beneath streams or trenching through streams and wetlands. Regardless of the method, pipeline installation will likely cause lasting impacts to water quality and aquatic habitat in the Yadkin. Trenching is particularly disruptive, requiring streams to be dammed, dewatered, and excavated, displacing aquatic life and altering natural stream functions. Even after water flow is restored, disturbed streambeds and construction-related sediment can continue to degrade water quality downstream, clouding waterways and harming aquatic species. We cannot sit by and allow Duke Energy to destroy this irreplaceable asset to Davie and Davidson Counties.” - Brooks Rainey, Senior Attorney at the Southern Environmental Law Center