Energy and Environment
August 30, 2012 -
The chemical industry is promoting a type of petrochemical plant known as an "ethane cracker" as a job creator for North Carolina once it begins fracking for natural gas in a couple of years. But such plants produce high levels of toxic pollution that take their toll on the health of nearby residents.
August 29, 2012 -
Residents of Gulf states are being warned to stay on alert for BP oil stirred up by Hurricane Isaac and to report sightings of any pollution washing ashore.
August 24, 2012 -
The Securities and Exchange Commission stood up to intense pressure from the likes of ExxonMobil and the American Petroleum Institute to approve rules that will shine a light on dealings between some of the world's biggest corporations and the poor countries from which they extract vast amounts of wealth.
August 22, 2012 -
Tests find low levels of health-damaging pollutants including radioactive elements in and around the Texas Brine sinkhole in Bayou Corne, La. -- but environmental advocates say the potential cumulative health impacts justify continued monitoring.
August 21, 2012 -
A clean-water advocacy group has reached a settlement with South Carolina Electric & Gas that will require the company to clean up coal ash impoundments at its Wateree plant in Richland County, S.C. that have contaminated groundwater and the nearby Wateree River with cancer-causing arsenic.
August 20, 2012 -
An energy watchdog group is running ads in newspapers across North Carolina demanding the power giant come clean on billions of dollars in planned nuclear improvements that could cost its customers dearly.
August 14, 2012 -
After coming under fire for releasing what it touted as an independent study of fracking's environmental risks that was in fact led by a director of a fracking company, the school appoints a panel to investigate -- and it's chaired by a former director of a gas giant whose fracking operations have been blamed for contaminating groundwater.