Environment
Ahead of climate conference, U.S. House panel tussles over curbs on emissions
Republicans on a U.S. House panel argued Wednesday against aggressive moves to meet carbon reduction goals, saying U.S. fossil fuel companies are working to make their products cleaner. Democrats on the U.S. House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on the Environment, Manufacturing and Critical Minerals countered that to achieve further reductions, federal policies should be continued […]
EPA withdraws consent for Chemours to export GenX from Netherlands to Fayetteville
This is a developing story and will be updated. The EPA has withdrawn its conditional consent for Chemours to export wastewater shipments containing GenX from its Dordrecht Works facility in the Netherlands to its Fayetteville, N.C., facility, the agency announced Wednesday afternoon. In its application to the EPA, Chemours had overstated the amount of imported […]
UN panel alleges Chemours is violating human rights of North Carolinians with toxic PFAS
DuPont and two of its spinoff companies, Chemours and Corteva, allegedly violated the human rights of hundreds of thousands of people living in the Lower Cape Fear River Basin, routinely discharging toxic PFAS into the region’s drinking water supplies, a United Nations panel announced this past weekend. “DuPont and Chemours facilities have significantly contributed to […]
Some states act to protect residents from extreme heat — with a new focus on young people
After two years of record-breaking heat that brought a surge of deaths and health emergencies, several states have enacted or are considering measures designed to protect residents — with a new focus on younger people whose vulnerability is rising with the temperatures. Nationally, heat-related deaths rose from about 1,000 in 2018 to 1,722 in 2022 […]
Monday numbers: the 5th National Climate Assessment, NC drought and wildfires
The last time the rain gauge at Asheville Regional Airport collected much more than a teardrop prior to last Tuesday was three months ago, on Aug. 27, when 1.06 inches of rain fell. In the interim, this mountain town was as dry as sand, federal weather data show, and is nearly 11 inches short of […]
New life for old coal: Minelands and power plants are hot renewable development spots
PETERSBURG, Ind. — AES Indiana’s Petersburg Generating Station, which towers over the White River here in southwest Indiana, has been burning coal to generate electricity since the late 1960s. That era, though, will come to an end soon. Two of the power plant’s four coal-burning units have already retired and the last is planning to […]
Lead, cadmium and ‘metal mixtures’ in drinking water increase risk of preterm birth
Pregnant individuals who are exposed to high levels of metals, such as cadmium and lead, in their private drinking water wells have a greater likelihood of preterm birth, North Carolina researchers have found, which can increase the children’s risk of chronic health problems as they grow up. The recent findings are important because an estimated […]
Reliability v. sustainability: Inside the debate over the EPA’s proposed carbon rules
Electric reliability has been a hot topic lately — from congressional hearings to regulatory agencies and at the regional transmission organizations that run the electric grid in much of the country. The American electric grid is undergoing a major change, prodded by state and federal decarbonization policies, market forces pushing cheaper and cleaner forms of […]
DEQ will intervene to help clean up lead in Durham city parks
The N.C. Department of Environmental Quality will help clean up lead-contaminated areas in five Durham parks, city officials announced this week. The parks — Walltown, Lyon, East End, East Durham and Northgate — have qualified for the state’s Pre-Regulatory Landfill Program, which was established to remediate land where municipal solid waste disposal occurred before Jan. 1, […]
Homes near Sampson County landfill on bottled water after PFAS detections
Sampson County residents who want the state to sample their drinking water well can call 919-707-8200. Six households in Snow Hill, a predominantly Black community in Sampson County, are receiving bottled water from the state after sampling showed their drinking water wells contained elevated levels of toxic PFAS. While five of these homes are near […]
A year after devastating winter storm, power plant problems ‘still likely’ in extreme weather
Nearly a year ago, a Christmas weekend storm blasted across the country, forcing utilities to cut electricity to hundreds of thousands of people in parts of the southeastern U.S. after temperatures plunged, demand spiked, large numbers of power plants failed and natural gas supply was strained. As the anniversary approaches of Winter Storm Elliott, a […]
DEQ, Cultural and Natural Resources at odds over settlement agreement with Wake Stone
The N.C. Department of Environmental Quality and Wake Stone have reached a settlement agreement regarding the controversial expansion of the Triangle Quarry next to Umstead State Park, but the agency still must pay $500,000 in attorneys’ fees. The case stems from litigation before Chief Administrative Law Judge Donald van der Vaart. In August, van der […]