Environomics: Wind Revolution Rising
Environomics: Wind Revolution Rising Thanks to some backward state legislators, North Carolina may be missing our chance to lead the offshore wind energy revolution in the United States. But we can still benefit by joining up. After years of fits and starts, several northeastern and mid-Atlantic states are ready to lead America’s East Coast in […]
Executive Watch: DEQ Opposes Gutting Air Pollution Rules
Executive Watch: DEQ Opposes Gutting Air Pollution Rules The Trump Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) wants to help aging coal plants burn longer, adding to greenhouse gas emissions. Thousands of lives could be lost. North Carolina’s Department of Environment Quality (DEQ) opposes it. Last week, the EPA released what it deceptively labeled its “Affordable Clean Energy […]
Campaign Watch: Bait & Switch, Round 2
Campaign Watch: Bait & Switch, Round 2 A special review panel of state judges has ruled that the ballot descriptions for two proposed state constitutional amendments are so deceptive that they must be rewritten or pulled from the general election ballot. State legislators are back in Raleigh to tinker with the wording. The big problem: […]
Washington Watch: Attorneys General Challenge EPA Science-Denial Plan
Washington Watch: Attorneys General Challenge EPA Science-Denial Plan Last week, North Carolina Attorney General Josh Stein joined the attorneys general of 14 other states and D.C. to challenge the Environmental Protection Agency’s plan to ignore most scientific studies in its development of regulations. The joint letter said a rule proposed by disgraced former EPA director […]
Judicial Watch: Court Confirms Citizens Can Sue Duke Over Coal Ash Pollution
Judicial Watch: Court Confirms Citizens Can Sue Duke Over Coal Ash Pollution Last week, a federal District Court in North Carolina ruled community groups with members near Duke Energy’s Belews Lake facility can move forward with their coal ash lawsuit against Duke. The court rejected Duke’s claim that the groups had not alleged facts sufficient […]
Campaign Watch: Judges Threatened with Impeachment
Campaign Watch: Judges Threatened with Impeachment Rule against us, the top official of a North Carolina political party warned state judges, and you’ll face impeachment. Last week, lawyers for the state legislative majority told a three-judge panel that the courts had no power to tell the legislature it must honestly describe the contents of proposed […]
Conservation Action: Save the Clean Water Rule
Conservation Action: Save the Clean Water Rule Today (Monday, August 13) is the last day to make a public comment on the Trump Administration’s proposal to repeal the Clean Water Rule. Adopted by the Obama Administration in 2015, the rule reaffirms critical nationwide protections for small streams and wetlands as “waters of the United States” […]
Judicial Watch: Court Orders Ban of Brain-Damaging Pesticide
Judicial Watch: Court Orders Ban of Brain-Damaging Pesticide A federal appellate court has ordered the Trump Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to do its job of protecting human health, by banning a pesticide shown to damage children’s brains from being used on food crops. The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals overturned former EPA head Scott Pruitt’s […]
Campaign Watch: Constitution on the Line
Campaign Watch: Constitution on the Line Multiple parties have filed lawsuits asking North Carolina’s courts to block deceptively-worded descriptions of proposed state constitutional amendments from this fall’s ballot. Gov. Roy Cooper filed one lawsuit asking the court to nix two of the General Assembly’s six proposed amendments from the ballot. His lawsuit asserts that the […]
Washington Watch: Pay More, Pollute More
Washington Watch: Pay More, Pollute More Once again, the Trump Administration has adopted a rule change to gut a common-sense pollution control—in this case, the clean car standards that reduce air pollution and save consumers billions of dollars a year in gas consumption. The proposed changes would freeze federal auto efficiency standards at current levels […]
