Were North Carolina Regulators Helping Duke Energy Avoid Big Fines?
This week, emails emerged suggesting that Duke lobbyists may have asked DENR to intervene in the litigation on the company’s behalf,
Via Moyers & Company:
News broke last week that Duke Energy and its North Carolina regulator had worked together to minimize penalties the utility would have to pay for leeching chemicals into the drinking water. And this was before a coal ash spill last month dumped thousands of tons of poisonous coal slurry into the Dan River.
But these emails are just the latest evidence of a problematic coziness between the politically influential utility and the North Carolina Department of Natural Resources (DENR).
In this case, a coalition of environmental groups headed by the Southern Environmental Law Center sued Duke En...