Duke Energy: Guilty of violating the Clean Water Act
Duke Energy is guilty, nine times over, for its handling of coal ash in North Carolina. The energy giant pleaded guilty last week to nine misdemeanor violations of the federal Clean Water Act, accepting a punishment of five years probation and $102 million in fines and restitution. The plea deal came after last year’s 39,000-ton…
North Carolina Legislature disses the EPA, women and abortion rights
How did you celebrate Earth Day last week? Did you pray to Gaia like a good hippie? Strip naked and hug a tree? Trade in that coal-rolling behemoth for a shiny new Chevy Volt? If you’re like state Sen. Chad Barefoot or Ralph Hise, you spent the day bitching about the EPA and its 300…
From the archives: Offshore drilling in North Carolina could threaten ecosystems
This originally ran in the INDY on June 30, 2010: By Lisa Sorg There is a place in the sea 45 miles northeast of Cape Hatteras brimming with so much life that at depths beyond the sunlight’s reach the water is illuminated by colorful ocean creatures and fish. Known as the Point, it is one…
New N.C. DENR Secretary announces personnel changes
Updated: In a statement released Tuesday afternoon, DENR Secretary Donald van der Vaart announced that Tom Reeder, former director of the Division of Water Resources, will succeed Mitch Gillespie as Assistant Secretary for the Environment. Gillespie will serve as department liaison in the Asheville Regional Office and will become DENR’s “first director of western outreach,…
Senator to Duke Energy: Thanks for “pro-active” response to coal ash spill
On Monday, Sen. Stan Bingham, a seven-term Republican lawmaker from Davidson County, thanked a Duke Energy executive for the energy giant’s “pro-active” response to the ongoing controversy over its coal ash spill in the Rockingham County city of Eden. Not everyone at Monday’s session of the N.C. General Assembly’s Environmental Review Commission was so forgiving,…
State officials investigate Orange County dump
A blue Chevrolet Apache, one of dozens of abandoned vintage cars, is fading, its windows shattered. Toilets litter the ground like porcelain tombstones. Rust-covered metal drums mingle with dead leaves. Decaying wooden shacks, their roofs slouched with age, sit amid piles of wooden debris. And a piece of metal juts, like the snout of some…
N.C. Museum of Natural Sciences director puts kibosh on documentary about sea-level rise
Update with correction and clarification: A museum spokesman responded to this story on Wednesday, Nov. 20, saying Koster did not overrule members of a programming committee, as originally reported. The spokesman said it was solely Koster’s decision not to show the film. As for the committee, according to member David Kroll, it recommended that the…
More NC Department of Environment and Natural Resources Coverage
Chuck Wakild, director of Division of Water Quality, leaving the agency
A top official at the N.C. Department of Environment and Natural Resources announced he is leaving his post effective today. Chuck Wakild, the director of the Division of Water Quality, told his staff, “I will be leaving my job as director effective today and will be retiring from state service at the end of August,”…
Aqua North Carolina found a legal way to raise its rates—at customers’ expense
Document This stipulation shows some details of the Acquisition Incentive Account that was established upon the sale of Heater Utilities to Aqua America. On the third page, under section (6)b, you’ll find the clause explaining that the Utilities Commission, its public staff and the N.C. Department of Environment and Natural Resources will identify “nonviable” water…
We have no fracking gas
Not 40 years. Not 30 years. Not even 10 years. Six years: That’s how long natural gas resources in the Deep River Basin would meet the state’s demand, according to a much-awaited U.S. Geological Survey assessment of gas resources released Tuesday. That amount is far short of leaders’ predictions that the state’s supply of shale-trapped…
Fracking hearing tonight; fake DENR apology making email rounds
When issuing an official press release from the N.C. Department of Environment and Natural Resources—or pretending to—it’s wise to include the agency secretary’s name. That was among the tells when the Indy received a “press release” alleging that DENR has apologized for its controversial draft report on fracking, in which the agency said it could…
Does Shell Oil have Perdue’s ear on fracking?
When Americans for Prosperity praise a Democrat, it’s never good news. The überconservative group applauded Gov. Bev Perdue yesterday for her support of fracking, after she told WRAL-TV that it would be permissible in North Carolina if the controversial drilling method could be regulated.“Governor Perdue should be applauded for this important change of her policy…
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