lobbying
March 11, 2014 -
Before its coal-fired units were shuttered in 2012, Duke Energy's Dan River plant burned coal from mountaintop removal mines in Appalachia. The reality that the arsenic-laden ash now contaminating a North Carolina river was once a forested mountain peak highlights the destructive lifecycle of coal.
February 20, 2014 -
Duke Energy has long fought strict federal regulations on coal ash, which is in the spotlight again following a spill from one of the company's North Carolina plants. Duke got help from the American Legislative Exchange Council, the controversial corporate-interest advocacy group that has counted the utility among its members.
December 17, 2013 -
The Civitas Institute, a conservative think tank founded and bankrolled by N.C. budget director Art Pope, sought funding to portray the Medicaid program as "failed" and to urge funding cuts, according to leaked documents obtained by The Guardian. The effort comes as the McCrory administration wants to privatize management of the public health insurance program for the poor and disabled.
December 17, 2013 -
The private prison industry is fueling high incarceration rates in Mississippi and elsewhere in the United States. It's a way to keep an indentured class in a state and nation built on slavery.
December 13, 2013 -
Corporate interest advocacy groups including the controversial American Legislative Exchange Council made repealing North Carolina's renewable energy law a top priority last year. Their effort failed, but now ALEC is trying a different approach by taking aim at the solar boom.
December 6, 2013 -
The American Legislative Exchange Council lost members and money after the 2011 shooting death of unarmed Florida teen Trayvon Martin and the acquittal of his assailant under the state's Stand Your Ground law, which the corporate interest advocacy group helped craft and promote nationwide.
November 14, 2013 -
The State Policy Network -- a national alliance of right-wing think tanks funded by businessmen including the Kochs of Koch Industries, the Waltons of Wal-Mart, and Art Pope of Variety Stores -- is driving a corporate agenda in state legislatures. So why they aren't reporting their lobbying activities?
