Environment
July 21, 2022 -
North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper (D) pushed for the new state budget to allocate millions of dollars to close hog farms, which are concentrated in environmental justice communities in the state's increasingly flood-prone east. But the Republican-controlled state legislature, where the industry is a powerful force, passed a budget without the funds — and Cooper signed it.
June 23, 2022 -
An explosion at a liquefied natural gas terminal in Freeport, Texas, in early June sparked a fire that emitted toxic air pollution. The national conversation about the incident quickly pivoted to global energy economics, but residents of fence-line communities worry about what the rapidly expanding industry means for their safety.
May 13, 2022 -
With almost 20 new natural gas projects slated to open this year alone in Louisiana and Texas, environmental health and justice activists in the region say the Biden administration's recent restoration of transparency provisions in the National Environmental Policy Act, rolled back by its predecessor, will provide a critical shield for them in their battle with the industry.
April 8, 2022 -
Facing South talked with three organizers in the nation's poorest state who are part of a movement to bring greater democracy to rural electric cooperatives. Founded during the New Deal to power communities the big private utilities refused to serve, co-ops today stand accused of a lack of inclusivity and transparency, which organizers are working to change.
March 24, 2022 -
Despite the urgency of the climate crisis, electric utilities across the South — including Duke Energy, Florida Power & Light, and Dominion Energy — are working in concert with fossil fuel interests to promote policies that discourage consumers from installing rooftop solar systems. Will regulators let them get away with it?
February 17, 2022 -
The House Natural Resources Committee held a hearing this week on the Environmental Justice for All Act, which would strengthen protections for vulnerable communities from environmental health threats. We share the official testimony of Amy Laura Cahn, director of the Environmental Justice Clinic at the Vermont Law School, who discussed waste dumping in Alabama and pipeline construction in Virginia in making a case for the bill's transformative power.
December 16, 2021 -
Four years of unprecedented rainfall left much of West Virginia devastated. Now residents, activists, and regulators struggle to reform the logging and mining industries that bear much of the responsibility.
