Environment

March 16, 2018 - Data released under the new federal coal ash rule revealed radium contamination of groundwater at many of the utility's coal-fired power plants. But now the Trump administration wants to roll back that rule — including its groundwater monitoring requirements.

March 2, 2018 - Two American Indian tribes in North Carolina are seeking to join a legal challenge to federal regulators' approval of the project, arguing that the environmental assessment excluded them. The fracked gas pipeline proposed by Dominion and Duke Energy would disproportionately affect tribal lands in the eastern part of the state.

March 2, 2018 - In her work as an organizer and co-director of the North Carolina Environmental Justice Network, Naeema Muhammad battles against environmental racism alongside targeted groups who have been inspired to speak up for themselves.

January 31, 2018 - The proposed Atlantic Coast Pipeline has secured a key permit from the Cooper administration, but opponents are keeping up the fight against the project, which would have a dramatically disproportionate impact on low-income and non-white communities.

January 5, 2018 - The Trump administration announced an aggressive proposal to bring offshore drilling to Southern states where governors oppose it, despite a federal law that says their wishes should be considered. Governors, both Democrat and Republican, say they plan to fight it.

December 15, 2017 - The project's developers are airing TV commercials claiming that the fracked-gas pipeline would be an economic boon for North Carolina. But a new economic analysis adds to a growing body of evidence that calls those claims into question.

November 17, 2017 - Opponents are petitioning FERC to reconsider the controversial project after lead developers Dominion and Duke Energy submitted thousands of pages of technical documents after the public comment period ended and failed to consider the disproportionate impacts on African-American and Native American communities.  

September 29, 2017 - Energy Transfer Partners, the Dallas-based company behind several controversial projects including the Dakota Access Pipeline, is accused of using unconstitutional tactics against landowners and protesters with help from law enforcement and TigerSwan, its North Carolina-based private security provider.

September 22, 2017 - A new report by Oil Change International shows how federal regulators' failure to adequately consider companies' justification for new fracked gas pipelines means utility ratepayers could end up footing the bill for costly and environmentally harmful projects that aren't needed.

September 8, 2017 - Organizers across the U.S. South — the epicenter of the national pipeline-building push — are holding events across the region to voice opposition to the environmentally and economically risky projects as key permits are pending.