Environment

September 23, 2016 - The EPA is considering a proposal to allow oil and gas companies to continue to dump wastewater from offshore fracking directly into Gulf waters. The industry dumped more than 76 billion gallons of fracking wastewater into the Gulf in 2014 alone.

September 20, 2016 - A spill from the Colonial Pipeline in Alabama threatens the Cahaba River, which provides drinking water for over a million people and is the sole home for 13 species. The spill is the latest disaster for which the Georgia-based company, owned in part by units of Koch Industries and Royal Dutch Shell, has paid millions in fines.

September 14, 2016 - The Obama administration unveiled its latest National Offshore Wind Strategy last week as part of its efforts to curb climate change. Steps are already being taken to make offshore wind farms a reality in the Southeast, where much of the nation's offshore wind potential is found.

September 7, 2016 - Kelcy Warren chairs Energy Transfer Equity, the Dallas company behind the petro pipeline being fought by Indian tribes who say it's desecrating sacred land in North Dakota and putting water supplies at risk. Warren is a major contributor to Republican political causes, but will his influence help his project succeed?

August 25, 2016 - The North Carolina utility giant and other fossil-fuel interests are contributing to a national super PAC that's using divisive social issues like abortion and religion to boost the election chances of U.S. Senate candidates who reject the science of human-caused global warming.

August 19, 2016 - Environmentalists say the Obama administration's plan to hold an offshore oil and gas lease auction in Louisiana next week is "rubbing salt in the wounds" of a state struggling to recover from historic floods that have been linked to climate change.

August 11, 2016 - Following revelations that several protesters at a fossil fuel lease auction in Colorado were undercover law enforcement agents acting on information from the oil and gas industry, an environmental group has submitted Freedom of Information Act requests to the federal agencies responsible for leasing to learn more about surveillance of climate activists.

July 29, 2016 - This week 69 state lawmakers from the Carolinas and Georgia, both Democrats and Republicans, sent a letter asking the Obama administration to block seismic testing permits for oil and gas deposits off the East Coast. They joined hundreds of other local communities, elected officials, business groups and scientists opposed to offshore exploration and drilling.

July 7, 2016 - The utility initially requested a $50 million bond from two climate watchdog groups challenging the planned construction of a $1 billion gas plant near Asheville. Now Duke is asking for almost triple that amount in a move with serious implications for democracy.

July 1, 2016 - An environmental group wants the N.C. Ethics Commission to investigate whether the McCrory administration withheld information about a dinner meeting with Duke Energy officials and used state resources to benefit his re-election campaign. It's not the first ethics complaint filed against McCrory — or the first involving his relationship with the utility.