In the letter the company sent the state last week, Duke Energy CEO Lynn Good proposed abandoning 930 megawatts of coal capacity, the first time Duke would "shut down what it has considered relatively modern coal units already outfitted with advanced pollution controls," the Charlotte Business Journal reports.

The letter came after the state asked Duke to provide it with a plan for how the Charlotte-based company would manage coal ash around the state. (You know, after tons of it spilled into the Dan River in February.) The suggestion, which has been largely ignored by the media and public, is not part of the company's 15-year plan.

In the letter, Good says the 565-megawatt Cliffside 5 coal unit at the Rogers Energy Complex, which straddles Cleveland and Rutherford counties, and the 376-megawatt Asheville Plant, near Skyland, would convert to dry ash or close.

Duke hasn't said when - or if - the units would actually be abandoned.