Energy and Environment
April 16, 2014 -
A new report looks at the real-world consequences of a conspiracy theory promoted by the extreme right -- and by North Carolina leaders including Gov. Pat McCrory -- that claims environmental sustainability initiatives are part of a plot to destroy America and kill most of humanity.
April 11, 2014 -
This week international human rights campaigner Desmond Tutu called for a boycott of carbon polluters, much like the effort that helped bring down the apartheid regime in his native South Africa. Southern energy giants are among the companies that could feel the heat.
April 9, 2014 -
American Rivers has released its annual list of the 10 most endangered U.S. rivers, and three are in the South -- the Haw in North Carolina, the South Fork Edisto in South Carolina, and the Middle Mississippi in Kentucky.
April 8, 2014 -
After a flood protection authority in Southeast Louisiana filed a lawsuit against almost 100 oil and gas companies seeking to recoup billions of dollars for damages they've caused to the coast, the industry's friends in state government have scrambled to make the lawsuit retroactively illegal.
April 3, 2014 -
North Carolina regulators have found highly toxic thallium seeping from coal ash pits at two Duke Energy plants. Rep. Mike Hager -- the state lawmaker who co-chairs the committee that will handle coal ash cleanup legislation and former engineering manager for one of the thallium-leaking plants -- doesn't think the discovery is cause for alarm. Is his perspective shaped by his Duke connections?
March 26, 2014 -
Watchdog groups are raising concerns about calls to move coal ash from wet impoundments into dry landfills, warning of inevitable leakage from landfills that are typically located in low-income and minority communities. Instead, they propose storing the waste above ground in concrete vaults on power plant property.
March 21, 2014 -
Legal and regulatory pressure is building against North Carolina-based Duke Energy over its chronic mismanagement of toxic waste from coal-fired power plants. Meanwhile, environmental watchdogs using a hidden camera busted a Kentucky utility illegally dumping coal ash wastewater into the Ohio River.