The National Park Service today announced new rules to manage off-road vehicle traffic on beaches so nesting and baby sea turtles and birds as well as pedestrians are protected in Cape Hatteras National Seashore, according to conservation groups.
Conservation groups today announced a settlement with Duke Energy that will cut pollution by phasing out over 1600 mega watts of dirty, old coal-fired power while still meeting customers’ energy needs.
EPA today provided long overdue and vitally important health protections for American families and children by issuing standards for toxic air pollution from power plants, said the Southern Environmental Law Center.
Conservation groups and the U.S. Forest Service have reached an agreement that protects an area of rare old-growth forest from logging near Franklin in the Nantahala National Forest.
The federal government ignored the impact of BP’s 200 million gallon oil spill in its assessment of risks and precautions for the Gulf of Mexico before the first new lease sale since the Deepwater Horizon disaster, according to a lawsuit filed today in D.C. federal court by conservation groups.
Clean energy groups have reached an agreement with Duke Energy and Progress Energy to address concerns the groups raised in a South Carolina Public Service Commission proceeding on the proposed merger of the two companies. If the merger is approved, the newly formed holding company, Duke Energy, will be the largest electric utility in the country. Two subsidiaries, Duke Energy Carolinas and Progress Energy Carolinas, will continue as operating companies in South Carolina and North Carolina.
A federal court today rejected the Portland Cement Association’s attempt to repeal public health protections provided by the Environmental Protection Agency against air pollution from portland cement kilns.
In a 56-41 vote, a bipartisan majority of the U.S. Senate today upheld EPA rules that protect North Carolina from harmful air pollution emitted by facilities in other states while also creating new, full-time jobs. Senator Hagan (D-NC) voted to support the “cross-state” rule that protects people’s health, saves lives, and creates jobs while Senator Burr (R-NC) voted to dismantle it.
The new federal drilling plan ignores the BP Deepwater Horizon disaster by using the same flawed assumptions to continue leasing the Gulf of Mexico to oil companies for more risky deep water drilling.
The state’s air permit for the proposed Titan America cement plant in New Hanover County must reduce pollution to the maximum extent possible to protect public health and satisfy federal and state law, according to comments on the draft air permit filed by conservation groups.
Environmental groups filed an appeal in federal court today saying that last week's ruling by a district court judge did not take into consideration important factors that are critical to their legal challenge of the Monroe Bypass.
North Carolina needs to objectively and critically investigate the risks of hydraulic fracturing before considering changes to existing law, according to comments submitted today by the Southern Environmental Law Center to the N.C. Department of Environment and Natural Resources.
As state and federal politicians seek to remove or block protections from harmful air pollution, industry-provided data reveals that large polluters put over 34 million pounds of toxic substances and nearly 1.5 million pounds of cancer-causing chemicals into the air North Carolina residents breathed during 2010.
The proposed merger of Duke Energy and Progress Energy to create the nation’s largest electric utility is an opportunity to shape our region’s energy future, according to testimony filed yesterday evening with the N.C. Utilities Commission by clean energy advocates.
Conservation groups today called on the North Carolina Department of Transportation to rethink its plan for replacing Bonner Bridge at its current location and instead build a safer, more reliable access route for Outer Banks residents and tourists after the ocean created multiple new inlets and destroyed sections of N.C. Highway 12 during Hurricane Irene, cutting off the barrier island again right before a holiday weekend. Storms continue to prove the warnings by NCDOT consultants, federal agencies, and university scientists that over wash is inevitable for stretches of N.C. Highway 12 within and near Pea Island National Wildlife Refuge.
On August 23, when news became public that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) had informed the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) that it was reconsidering its approval of the proposed Monroe Bypass, the agency sent another letter to the FHWA appearing to back away from that position but still expressing serioius concerns about the project.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has informed federal and state agencies that it is reconsidering its approval of the proposed Monroe Bypass near Charlotte due to misinformation in the environmental analysis concluding there would be virtually no impact on water quality. Without the agency's sign-off, the project cannot move forward.
Conservation groups filed a lawsuit today challenging an Environmental Protection Agency rule that exempts large-scale biomass-burning facilities from carbon dioxide limits under the Clean Air Act for the next three years.
Conservation groups will examine closely a draft air permit for the proposed Titan cement plant issued today by the N.C. Department of Environment and Natural Resources and encourage the public to participate in the upcoming public comment period.
As the N.C. House of Representatives prepares to vote on whether to fast track fracking and offshore drilling in North Carolina, a map released today by the Southern Environmental Law Center shows that hydraulic fracturing of potential shale gas deposits in the state could directly impact the water supply for 1.1 million people, and an additional 1.3 million people downstream.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, in its overall effort to rein in heat-trapping greenhouse gases, took a major step backwards today with a final decision to ignore carbon pollution from biomass-burning plants for at least three years.
Today’s vetoes by Governor Perdue of two bills--S.709 and S.781— defend North Carolina’s clean energy economy and a safe, healthy environment for residents and tourists, said the Southern Environmental Law Center.
With no public debate at the end of the session and expected to be voted on by the House, Rep. Pat McElraft today introduced, and the House Committee on the Environment approved, an amendment to SB308 to repeal protections provided to the public by North Carolina’s Air Toxic Regulations. These regulations protect citizens from hazardous, toxic, and cancer-causing air pollution from industrial sources.
The federal government illegally authorized new deepwater drilling by claiming that risky operations will cause no significant harm to the environment despite last year’s BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill, said four environmental groups in a court filing today. The coalition challenged government approval of Shell’s plan to conduct new deepwater exploratory drilling off Alabama’s coast in waters 2000 feet deeper than the BP Deepwater Horizon even though regulators acknowledge that the operations may result in an oil spill ten times bigger than last year’s disaster in the Gulf of Mexico.
After hundreds of visitors enjoy the Memorial Day weekend on North Carolina’s beaches, the N.C. House will vote to request that the federal government open its coast to the risk of oil spills from offshore drilling under the same practices that led to the BP Deepwater Horizon disaster and oiled 641 miles of Gulf Coast over 87 days.
The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Alabama ruled that Defenders and SELC may pursue their claims that the government violated the National Environmental Policy Act and Endangered Species Act in approving at least 221 oil drilling leases in the Gulf of Mexico following the BP Deepwater Horizon blowout and oil spill.
Senators from Virginia and North Carolina voted today on a bill (S. 953) that would expose the coasts, fishing, and tourism of both states to the risk of an oil spill from drilling under the same practices that led to the BP Deepwater Horizon disaster a year ago, according to the Southern Environmental Law Center.
Ignoring lessons learned from the BP Deepwater Horizon disaster, the U.S. House of Representatives today passed the last of three oil company bills that continues a lax approach to risky oil company activities, according to the Southern Environmental Law Center.
The Keep the Ban Coalition today announced the support of 41 localities and organizations that have joined the growing statewide movement urging the Virginia legislature to resist an industry push to lift the state's ban on uranium mining as early as next year.
A strong majority of North Carolina voters says deep cuts in environmental protections proposed in a legislative budget would handicap the economy and harm the state's quality of life, according to a new poll from Public Policy Polling.
New guidance proposed today by the Army Corps of Engineers and the Environmental Protection Agency would bring long-awaited and much needed clarity to the protection of our nation’s streams, wetlands, and open waters.
North Carolina Republican senators today moved to put North Carolina’s coast at risk to oil spills on the one-year anniversary of the BP Deepwater Horizon disaster despite the harm witnessed to life in and around the Gulf of Mexico, said the Southern Environmental Law Center. The bill (S709) would redirect efforts away from alternative energy and force the state’s governor and agencies to adopt a pro-oil drilling position.
As the one-year anniversary of the deadly BP Deepwater Horizon explosion and oil spill nears, the Southern Environmental Law Center today called on Congress to fix systemic problems with oil drilling and the oil industry that the Presidential Oil Spill Investigation Commission identified as leading to the disaster.
SELC comments on the Department of Interior's finding of no significant impact from deep water drilling after the BP Deepwater Horizon disaster.
Twenty years after Congress updated the Clean Air Act, the Southern Environmental Law Center welcomed today’s announcement from EPA proposing maximum limits for more than 80 hazardous air pollutants by large power plants and called on the government to follow through implementing strong protections for the American people. Studies estimate that these pollution limits will save 17,000 people each year from premature death and cases of childhood asthma symptoms each year.
A report from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency today shows that pollution controls for ozone and soot in the 1990 amendments of the Clean Air Act-currently under harsh attack from polluting industries and allies on the Hill-will yield approximately $2 trillion in benefits in 2020 while saving 230,000 people from early death in that year alone.
SELC called on the N.C. Marine Fisheries Commission to prevent waste in the striped bass trawl fishery after reports, photographs and videos of trawlers discarding thousands of striped bass on January 16, 2011 and again on February 3-4, 2011.
After years of debate, the U.S. Forest Service and conservation groups have reached a mutual agreement over logging plans for the Globe area of the Pisgah National Forest near Boone and Blowing Rock.
More than 100 citizens from around the Commonwealth were expected to turn out today for a National Academy of Sciences (NAS) meeting in Richmond to support keeping a statewide ban on uranium mining and milling in Virginia that has been in place for almost 30 years.
Groups that kept the proposed Titan America cement plant near Wilmington, N.C., accountable to standards protecting the health of N.C. residents now will defend national pollution limits on cement plants after a federal court granted their intervention in Portland Cement Association v. EPA.
Today the EPA changed course and said it will not regulate carbon dioxide from facilities that burn trees and other biomass for at least three years. In the meantime, biomass facilities that come online or upgrade will not have to control for those emissions.
SELC called for systemic reform and better oversight after the oil spill commission’s investigation found the BP Deepwater Horizon blowout resulted from pervasive problems.
Problems in the oil industry by the National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling confirms the need for systemic reform and better oversight.
Environmental groups today filed a motion for a preliminary injunction in federal court seeking an immediate halt to any further action by the N.C. Department of Transportation on the proposed Monroe Bypass near Charlotte, including the issuance of bonds.
After a record-breaking year for wildlife at Cape Hatteras National Seashore and visitor occupancy in Dare County, NC, conservation groups are studying the Final Environmental Impact Statement released yesterday by the National Park Service as its latest step in the process of establishing rules for managing beach driving within the seashore.