Tag: pollution

Greensboro News & Record: Don’t repeal Jordan Lake rules

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June 11, 2013 at 8:12 amCategory:Uncategorized

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Jordan lakeYou know something’s amiss in the General Assembly when even the folks who had criticized environmental rules for being too heavy-handed are now taking lawmakers to task for going too far in their response. The subject is Chatham County’s Jordan Lake and the rules that state environmental officials had adopted a few years back in order to save it from the pollution flowing down from Greensboro, Durham and other points north.

Today’s edition of the Greensboro News & Record — the hometown paper of the biggest city impacted by the rules (a city that had complained mightily about them) — editorializes against the state Senate’s plan to eviscerate the rules in a piece entitled “Don’t give up on lake” Read More…

Duke Energy’s two-faced stance on renewables

January 16, 2013 at 1:07 pmCategory:Uncategorized

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Greenpeace investigator Connor Gibson has a post worth checking out at the Greenpeace blog, The Witness . It’s about Duke Energy’s amazingly two-faced stance on North Carolina’s renewable energy law. As Gibson reports:

“Corporate polluters are taking aim this year at states with renewable energy laws, starting with an attack on North Carolina’s clean energy economy by a corporate front group known as ALEC with support from Duke Energy, ExxonMobil, and Koch Industries.

North Carolina state Representative Mike Hager says he is confident that he has the votes needed to weaken or undo his state’s clean energy requirements during his second term. Read More…

A climate change to-do list for the next President

November 6, 2012 at 10:43 amCategory:Uncategorized

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Nat Keohane of the Environmental Defense Fund has an op-ed in today’s edition of Bloomberg Businessweek that’s worth a read. Let’s hope Hurricane Sandy spurs people to take some of the actions he’s promoting.

“In the 2008 campaign, both presidential candidates called for comprehensive action on climate change through a declining cap on carbon. This time around, the economy has taken center stage; while Barack Obama and Mitt Romney have presented different visions on energy policy, climate change has largely been relegated to the sidelines. Nonetheless, the magnitude and urgency of the challenge have not diminished. If we needed any reminder of that fact, Hurricane Sandy should have provided it—especially coming on the heels of devastating drought, record-breaking temperatures through the spring and summer, and a record low in the extent of Arctic sea ice.”

Read the entire piece by clicking here.

Another reminder of why coal ain’t the answer

September 24, 2012 at 9:15 amCategory:Uncategorized

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Thanks to Steve Harrison at Blue NC this morning for highlighting and critiquing a pair of dueling essays in yesterday’s Charlotte Observer on the sobering subject of coal ash (the waste that results from burning coal and, in part, from “scrubbing” the exhaust so that we keep the air a smidge cleaner).  

The bottom line takeaway: The innumerable problems with coal ash are just another reminder of why we are kidding ourselves if we pretend that coal is a viable long-term solution to the world’s energy challenge.

(Photo courtesy of the Southern Environmental Law Center).  

Another mission accomplished for the market fundamentalists

March 13, 2012 at 9:53 amCategory:Uncategorized

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They’re probably clinking glasses this morning over in the Pope Empire over the contents of this Charlotte Observer story. Here’s the lead:

“Hundreds of trees may fall under new billboard law

Charlotte’s largest billboard company has requested permission to clear hundreds of trees along city interstates under a controversial new law opponents say could blight the landscape.”

Read it and weep by clicking here.