RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) - A group of Democrats in the North Carolina House has introduced a bill that would forbid Duke Energy from passing the costs of cleaning up its coal ash dumps on to its electricity customers.
The bill introduced this week is intended to offer an alternative to the Republican-backed plan proposed by Gov. Pat McCrory, who retired after working at Duke for more than 28 years.
The Democratic bill would also prohibit Duke from disposing of coal ash in unlined waste pits after August and would set firm deadlines for the company to close all 33 of its waste dumps scattered across the state.
The competing proposals come after a Feb. 2 coal ash spill at a Duke plant in Eden coated 70 miles of the Dan River in toxic sludge.
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