Environment

September 9, 2019 - Neil Jacobs, the federal agency's acting head, was reportedly one of the people behind its controversial statement that attempted to lend credibility to the president's incorrect claim that the storm would impact Alabama. He was assisted by Julie Kay Roberts, the NOAA chief of staff and communications director who previously worked for the Trump campaign.

August 30, 2019 - Despite record global temperatures and near-unanimity among climate scientists that human activity is to blame, the North Carolina-based John Locke Foundation continues to cast doubt on the science of global warming and to stymie efforts to address the problem through public policy — and mainstream media outlets keep boosting its message and lending it credibility.

July 3, 2019 - The U.S. Department of Agriculture has been researching how the climate crisis will affect farming, but it's withheld the findings from the public. That's just one example of how the Trump administration is making it harder for farmers across the South — a region especially vulnerable to climate change — to prepare for a warming world.

June 21, 2019 - This month Michael Bloomberg announced the Beyond Carbon campaign, which aims to permanently shift the U.S. away from coal and natural gas and toward renewable energy. The initiative dovetails with efforts in Southern states to move toward more sustainable energy options and comes as the Trump administration rolls back rules on coal plant pollution. 

May 9, 2019 - Across the region and the country, the Poor People's Campaign's Truth & Poverty Bus Tours have been gathering information on how public policy exacerbates poverty. It will be shared with the public next month at the Poor People's Moral Action Congress in Washington, D.C.

May 9, 2019 - The nation's largest investor-owned utility was recently named the worst for the environment. But changes recently proposed for the utility regulatory commission by the governor in the company's home state of North Carolina could push Duke in a more environmentally sustainable direction.

April 22, 2019 - State regulators recently issued a new general permit for industrial hog farms, and it dashed the hopes of environmental advocates who say it represents a failure to address the unequal pollution burden borne by nonwhite communities. They're calling on the agency to take environmental justice into account in future permitting decisions.