Environment

December 23, 2016 - In a year when it was hard to keep up with the onslaught of political news, Facing South helped to make sense of important developments and to share insights about the region. Catch up on our best reporting of 2016 with a roundup of our top stories of the year.  

December 20, 2016 - The president's long-anticipated announcement of a permanent ban on offshore oil and gas drilling in the Atlantic extends protections only as far as the Maryland-Virginia border. But environmental advocates say they will continue to fight against drilling anywhere along the Atlantic Coast.

December 16, 2016 - Opponents of opening the Atlantic coast to oil and gas drilling are pressing President Obama to enact a permanent ban. We look at the legal framework for such an action, and how durable it would be under a Trump administration.

December 15, 2016 - A Louisiana environmental health advocate says that if President-elect Donald Trump's pick for secretary of state, Exxon Mobil chairman and CEO Rex Tillerson, does for the world what he's done for Louisiana, "God help us."

December 6, 2016 - A day after denying Energy Transfer Partner's plan to route the Dakota Access Pipeline under a river near Sioux lands in North Dakota, the Army announced hearings for another of the company's controversial projects: a 162-mile oil pipeline cutting through Louisiana's Atchafalaya Basin, the largest U.S. wetlands and a last refuge for more than a dozen at-risk species.

November 17, 2016 - While the high-profile battle against the Dakota Access Pipeline continues, fights are also underway around the South to block new gas pipelines. Protests are planned in North Carolina this week against the Atlantic Coast Pipeline, while opponents of the Mountain Valley Pipeline just had a big court win in West Virginia.

November 3, 2016 - The Consumer Energy Alliance, a group run by energy lobbyists and tied to North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory's push for drilling in Atlantic waters, submitted letters to federal officials in support of a proposed gas pipeline project that were signed by people without their permission.

October 21, 2016 - Across the country, few politicians — especially at the state level — have been as generously backed and politically intertwined with energy interests as North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory.

October 20, 2016 - The record flooding across the Southeast from Hurricane Matthew has resulted in spills of waste from a Duke Energy coal ash pit, hog waste from factory farm lagoons, and sewage from water treatment plants.

October 14, 2016 - This week an environmental alliance released data showing that the oil industry in Louisiana has more than 30 accidents a week — from offshore platform spills to pipeline leaks that are poisoning the coastal wetlands and marine environment.