Environment
February 14, 2020 -
WUNC, a National Public Radio member station serving North Carolina's Research Triangle region, regularly airs promotional spots underwritten by Duke Energy. NC WARN has filed a complaint about them, saying they cross the line into ads, which are banned from noncommercial radio. The University of Arkansas recently settled a similar complaint against two stations it operates.
January 28, 2020 -
With Southern states' monopoly electric utilities clinging to a business model that's worsening the climate crisis, polluting the environment, and costing consumers dearly, there's growing interest in opening markets to competition. While a ballot initiative to end Florida's electricity monopoly was recently rejected by the state Supreme Court, there are efforts underway to end Virginia's monopoly system and to study the question in the Carolinas.
December 17, 2019 -
Eighteen state attorneys general have signed a friend-of-the-court brief calling for construction to proceed on the legally blocked Atlantic Coast Pipeline. All of the signatories are members of the Republican Attorneys General Association, a political influence group funded by dirty energy interests.
December 6, 2019 -
An industry lobby fronting as a pro-consumer group is undertaking a public advocacy campaign for a proposed pipeline stretching from West Virginia to Virginia and North Carolina. The Consumer Energy Alliance was created by an oil industry lobbyist who now chairs the N.C. Republican Party — and its members include major gas companies as well as Dominion Energy, the pipeline's lead partner.
November 18, 2019 -
The Trump administration is taking comments on proposals to ease coal ash regulations that the EPA adopted after the catastrophic 2008 spill at a Tennessee Valley Authority power plant in East Tennessee. Critics say the proposed rules would take a toll on public health by allowing more pollution, and on the public purse by letting utilities shift costs.
September 27, 2019 -
The North Carolina-based company recently released an updated climate plan promising "net-zero" carbon emissions by 2050. But Duke is clinging to coal decades longer than climate advocates say it should while pressing ahead with polluting fracked gas projects that could soon be economically unfeasible.
September 12, 2019 -
The more intense hurricanes now developing due to human-driven global warming are causing widespread pain throughout the U.S. South. But current policy choices mean some communities suffer more than others — and that environmental injustice will be among the topics addressed during this month's climate strike and U.N. climate summit.
