Environment

May 11, 2018 - With protests ongoing over the planned Bayou Bridge oil pipeline, the Louisiana legislature advanced a bill this week creating new crimes with stiff penalties for conspiracy to trespass on pipeline property — part of a broader trend of states and the federal government targeting protest actions.

May 4, 2018 - The plaintiffs in the historic federal nuisance lawsuit against the hog industry's waste disposal practices in North Carolina could face complications in collecting the $50 million verdict because of an industry-promoted state law that limits punitive damages. Their attorneys are challenging the law's constitutionality.

April 27, 2018 - Armed with a new study documenting the deadly poverty that plagues the U.S., coalitions in at least 40 states — including every state in the South — are preparing for 40 days of direct action to demand an end to public policies that hurt the most vulnerable. 

April 26, 2018 - This week the Environmental Protection Agency held a public hearing in Virginia on a proposal to roll back federal coal ash regulation. Among those who weighed in was a newspaperman from a rural Georgia community that's been targeted for coal ash dumping.

April 13, 2018 - A federal lawsuit filed on behalf of scores of dead and ill people who cleaned up the massive 2008 coal ash spill in eastern Tennessee is expected to get underway later this year. While claims have been made that no one warned of the health dangers for workers, records show otherwise.

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.