mike hager

May 8, 2013 - A bill to end North Carolina's renewable energy program was passed out of a Senate committee last week even though it didn't have the votes it needed. What's happening in the state is part of a broader national effort to revamp renewable energy laws.

May 3, 2013 - Clean energy opponents turned to dirty tactics to advance a bill repealing North Carolina's renewables program -- and that's not the only example of the state's energy policy being hijacked by powerful interests.

April 25, 2013 - A bill that would have ended North Carolina's renewable energy program appears dead in the water. How did the program's defenders prevail in the state's current archconservative environment?

April 4, 2013 - An effort to kill North Carolina's renewable energy law is meeting resistance from a politically powerful rural constituency.

April 2, 2013 - A hearing is set for tomorrow on legislation to repeal North Carolina's renewable energy standard -- part of a nationwide attack on such laws being mounted by groups with fossil-fuel industry ties.

March 29, 2013 - An email exchange between John Droz of the fossil fuel-funded American Tradition Institute and an attorney with the North Carolina Public Staff led to the introduction of a controversial bill that would have made it harder for the agency to do its work on behalf of the public.

March 14, 2013 - Of the four primary sponsors behind new legislation to repeal North Carolina's groundbreaking renewable energy law, three have documented ties to the fossil fuel-funded conservative policy group that's been gunning for renewables.

March 12, 2013 - A new report finds that North Carolina is among the leaders in creating manufacturing-related clean energy jobs, but some of the state's politicians are targeting the law that jump-started the industry's growth.

February 19, 2013 - As some conservative lawmakers target the state's renewable energy law for repeal, a new study details its benefits to the state's economy and consumers.

February 1, 2013 - A by-the-numbers look at how claims of "states' rights" -- once used to defend racial segregation -- are being used to justify legislative assaults on the interests of economically struggling citizens in North Carolina, Mississippi and elsewhere across the South.