Environment

March 4, 2016 - The Coalition of Immokalee Workers is escalating its battle over the fast-food chain's refusal to participate in a program to protect farmworkers' human rights: It's declaring a national boycott and launching a protest tour with marches outside the company chairman's homes in Manhattan and Palm Beach, Florida.

February 18, 2016 - The first presidential primaries in the South get underway this week in South Carolina, a state embroiled in the controversy over expanding offshore oil and gas drilling to the Atlantic. While most of the Republicans support expanded drilling, the Democrats don't want to see it come to the East Coast.

February 11, 2016 - Duke Energy officials in recent weeks have suggested that the administration of North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory may be going too far in its efforts to undermine environmental regulations aimed at curbing climate change and promoting renewable energy.

February 9, 2016 - The Isle de Jean Charles Band of Biloxi-Chitimacha-Choctaw will use a $48 million grant won in the National Disaster Resilience Competition to relocate away from the rising Gulf of Mexico — and hopes to serve as a model for others facing catastrophic sea-level rise. Other grant winners include Tennessee, Virginia and New Orleans.

February 4, 2016 - Since environmentalists forced a cleanup of coal ash from a SCE&G power plant along South Carolina's Wateree River, test results show a dramatic decrease in groundwater contamination at the site, pointing to what's possible when utilities take responsibility for their pollution. Is North Carolina paying attention?

January 29, 2016 - The utility company wants to build a new $750 million gas-fired power plant in Western North Carolina. But it's been less than forthcoming with details about the plan, so environmental watchdogs have turned to the courts in hopes of forcing more transparency.

January 27, 2016 - As efforts intensify to keep fossil fuel reserves in the ground in order to stave off the worst effects of climate change, anti-drilling activists are planning to protest outside a March auction in New Orleans of more than 42 million acres of U.S. waters from Louisiana to Florida for new oil and gas development.

January 21, 2016 - The grassroots fight against Atlantic oil and gas exploration began in Kure Beach, North Carolina in 2014, after the mayor at the time signed an industry-penned letter supporting it. He recently lost to a drilling foe — and the town just became the 100th East Coast community to pass a resolution against offshore oil and gas development.

January 8, 2016 - People living near the utility's leaking coal ash ponds say they're appalled by the decision by North Carolina's environmental agency to downgrade risk ratings determined by staff — an action that underscores concerns about the close relationship between the company and the McCrory administration.

December 15, 2015 - An oil industry-sponsored study that's been used to justify support for drilling off the Southeast coast overestimated the economic benefits while failing to account for the risks, according to a new analysis sponsored by an environmental advocacy group.