Energy and Environment
The South is full of luscious and beautiful places. Places that in many ways represent what the South means to all Southerners. At the same time, the people of the South gather and live in cities and towns that thrive on power derived from fossil fuels and nuclear energy. There’s a precious balance between energy and the environment, and sometimes it can be difficult to find.
INSTITUTE INDEX: Luminant's lawlessness in Texas
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November 2, 2011
Number of times that two Texas coal-fired power plants owned by Dallas-based Luminant are alleged to have violated the Clean Air Act in recent years: 38,000
Date on which...
A win for climate scientist in global-warming denier lawsuit
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November 2, 2011
After a day-long hearing yesterday in a Virginia courtroom, a judge granted former University of Virginia climatology professor Michael Mann's motion to intervene in a lawsuit...
As dolphins die, Gulf residents ask what about us?
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November 1, 2011
By Rocky Kistner, Bridge the Gulf
Willie Seaman of Irvington, AL, lays carpet and floors for a living. But last summer, as the BP well gushed thousands of barrels of oil...
SPECIAL INVESTIGATION: Who's behind the 'information attacks' on climate scientists?
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October 31, 2011
This week, in a courtroom in Prince William County, Virginia, a hearing will take place that could have implications for the privacy rights of scientists at colleges and...
FDA underestimated health risks of Gulf seafood following BP disaster, study finds
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October 19, 2011
The concerns were often heard in Gulf Coast communities in the months after the BP oil disaster began unfolding last April: The federal Food & Drug Administration (FDA) was...
States will fight environmentalists over federal coal ash rules
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October 18, 2011
Environmental advocates are facing new setbacks in their fight for strict federal regulation of coal ash, the toxic waste created by burning coal for electricity that's been...
INSTITUTE INDEX: Clinging to dirty energy in the South
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October 13, 2011
Concentration of carbon dioxide in Earth's atmosphere prior to the dawn of the industrial age 200 years ago, as measured in parts per million: 275
Current atmospheric...
VOICES: Solyndra's fossil fuel cousins
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September 23, 2011
By Phil Mattera, Dirt Diggers Digest
Republicans show no signs of relenting in their effort to exploit the bankruptcy filing of federally-backed solar equipment company Solyndra...
Tropical storm leaves behind oily mystery in Mississippi
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September 21, 2011
When Tropical Storm Lee made landfall along the Louisiana coast earlier this month, it caused widespread flooding across the Gulf region and washed oil from last year's BP...
Public gets last chance to weigh in on Duke-Progress merger
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September 19, 2011
The N.C. Utilities Commission will hold a public hearing on Tuesday, Sept. 20 about the proposed merger of Progress Energy and Duke Energy to form the nation's largest electric...
Landrieu opposes Obama jobs plan over ending oil-industry tax breaks
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September 16, 2011
President Obama unveiled his $447 billion jobs plan last week during an address to a joint session of Congress, calling on members to pass the plan "right away."
The American Jobs...
Climate-science contrarian Roy Spencer's oil-industry ties
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September 7, 2011
The controversy over a paper published last month in an obscure journal questioning the scientific consensus around man-made global warming is drawing attention to one of its...
Examining Rick Perry's environmental record
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September 7, 2011
By Forrest Wilder, Texas Observer
Ken Kramer, the long-time head of the Lone Star Chapter of the Sierra Club, recalls the one and only time Rick Perry met with him. The year was...
Who are America's top 10 gas drillers?
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September 2, 2011
By Nicholas Kusnetz, ProPublica
Natural gas -- often touted as an abundant, comparatively clean source of domestic energy -- has come under intensifying public scrutiny in recent...
Tar sands oil pipeline protesters direct ire at Obama
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August 31, 2011
There have been almost 600 arrests so far in an ongoing protest outside the White House against the proposed Keystone XL Pipeline that would carry crude oil from the tar sands of...
INSTITUTE INDEX: States' weak coal ash oversight endangers the public
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August 25, 2011
When a massive coal ash pond at the Tennessee Valley Authority's Kingston power plant in eastern Tennessee failed back in December 2008, it dumped a billion gallons of coal...
Earthquake scare at Virginia nuclear plant comes as regulators drag feet on addressing industry's seismic risks
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August 24, 2011
The scare over the impact the Aug. 23 earthquake in Virginia had on Dominion's North Anna nuclear station underscores the seismic risks facing the U.S. nuclear industry -- and...
Is oil still leaking from BP's Gulf disaster site?
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August 22, 2011
There is growing concern on the Gulf Coast that oil is rising again from BP's Macondo well, site of last year's catastrophic Deepwater Horizon spill, with reports of oil...
Flaming drinking-water well in Kentucky illuminates Big Coal's abuses
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August 19, 2011
The flaming drinking water well at a home in eastern Kentucky's Pike County first came to public attention back in May, thanks to a report by a local TV station.
WKYT visited...
Lawsuit targets carbon-pollution exemption for wood-burning power plants
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August 16, 2011
Conservation groups filed a lawsuit yesterday challenging the Environmental Protection Agency's exemption of wood-fired power plants and other biomass incinerators burners from...
VOICES: Where's the passion and the justice in CNN's Blair Mountain documentary?
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August 12, 2011
By Joe Atkins, Labor South
H.L. Mencken, the "sage of Baltimore" and old-school curmudgeon of journalism, once had this to say about journalistic objectivity: "I've been a...
Report for Obama questions effectiveness of gas drilling regulations
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August 12, 2011
By Nicholas Kusnetz, ProPublica
In sharp contrast with gas industry portrayals, the draft report released yesterday by a federal panel on shale gas drilling explicitly...
Concerns grow over risk of U.S. nuclear projects post-Fukushima
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August 11, 2011
The disaster at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant in Japan is still unfolding five months later, with multiple meltdowns and significant radiation releases contaminating...
Good news or bad news for the Gulf Dead Zone?
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August 9, 2011
Last week, scientists for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration found that the Gulf Dead Zone - an area of ocean unable to sustain sea life for much of the year -...
Utilities spark protests by sticking ratepayers with the bill for risky energy projects
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August 4, 2011
Consumer advocates are blasting the Georgia Public Service Commission's unanimous vote this week requiring ratepayers to bear the burden of cost overruns during construction...
