southern environmental law center
July 21, 2022 -
North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper (D) pushed for the new state budget to allocate millions of dollars to close hog farms, which are concentrated in environmental justice communities in the state's increasingly flood-prone east. But the Republican-controlled state legislature, where the industry is a powerful force, passed a budget without the funds — and Cooper signed it.
December 7, 2018 -
The latest tool that industry has used to tilt Georgia's regulatory field against electric utility ratepayers? An outside spending group tied to the faltering nuclear power industry, which helped Georgia Power's candidate of choice hold his seat on the state commission that oversees utilities.
May 24, 2018 -
A key permit voided. An environmental justice complaint. Accusations of fraud. In recent weeks, Dominion and Duke Energy's proposed pipeline to carry fracked gas from West Virginia at least as far south as North Carolina has faced several setbacks. But the developers plan on moving ahead with the $6.5 billion project anyway — and they're investing in creating a political climate favorable to those plans.
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.
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.
December 15, 2017 -
The project's developers are airing TV commercials claiming that the fracked-gas pipeline would be an economic boon for North Carolina. But a new economic analysis adds to a growing body of evidence that calls those claims into question.
September 8, 2017 -
Organizers across the U.S. South — the epicenter of the national pipeline-building push — are holding events across the region to voice opposition to the environmentally and economically risky projects as key permits are pending.