Welcome to DU!
The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards.
Join the community:
Create a free account
Support DU (and get rid of ads!):
Become a Star Member
Latest Breaking News
General Discussion
The DU Lounge
All Forums
Issue Forums
Culture Forums
Alliance Forums
Region Forums
Support Forums
Help & Search
Subpoenas raise stakes in N.C. criminal probe
Subpoenas raise stakes in N.C. criminal probe
By Steve Benen
Following up on Rachel’s report last night, if you’re not keeping an eye on the ongoing spill controversy in North Carolina, it’s time to start.
At issue here are, in effect, interconnected stories. The first is the environmental problem: in Eden, N.C., a coal-ash dump has twice this month accidentally spilled toxic sludge into the nearby Dan River. The coal ash and the pipes that leaked belong to Duke Energy, Gov. Pat McCrory’s (R) former employer.
Which leads to the legal/political part of the story. Last week, federal prosecutors, as part of a criminal investigation, sent a subpoena to the McCrory administration – specifically, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources – about Duke Energy’s coal-ash spill. And then this week, a federal grand jury issued a second round of subpoenas, seeking information on the McCrory administration’s oversight of every Duke Energy coal-ash site, not just the one that leaked into the Dan River.
Of particular interest was a settlement between the McCrory administration and Duke Energy involving previous instances in which the company polluted ground water at two other sites.
The settlement didn’t require Duke to actually clean up the pollution, but in an interesting twist, the McCrory administration, which had struck the deal, asked a court to reject it after the Associated Press reported on its existence.
And now federal investigators are eager to learn more about it.
- more -
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/subpoenas-raise-stakes-nc-criminal-probe
By Steve Benen
Following up on Rachel’s report last night, if you’re not keeping an eye on the ongoing spill controversy in North Carolina, it’s time to start.
North Carolina’s top environmental regulator defended his oversight of Duke Energy Wednesday as a criminal probe of the Dan River ash spill sought answers from his staff.
Subpoenas released Wednesday order 18 state water-quality officials to appear next month before a federal grand jury in Raleigh. They’re to report not only communications going back to 2009 but any payments and gifts from Duke.
The N.C. Department of Environment and Natural Resources itself got a subpoena Tuesday for ash-related records for all 14 of Duke’s active and retired coal-fired plants in the state. Duke said it too received a subpoena Wednesday but would not describe it.
At issue here are, in effect, interconnected stories. The first is the environmental problem: in Eden, N.C., a coal-ash dump has twice this month accidentally spilled toxic sludge into the nearby Dan River. The coal ash and the pipes that leaked belong to Duke Energy, Gov. Pat McCrory’s (R) former employer.
Which leads to the legal/political part of the story. Last week, federal prosecutors, as part of a criminal investigation, sent a subpoena to the McCrory administration – specifically, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources – about Duke Energy’s coal-ash spill. And then this week, a federal grand jury issued a second round of subpoenas, seeking information on the McCrory administration’s oversight of every Duke Energy coal-ash site, not just the one that leaked into the Dan River.
Of particular interest was a settlement between the McCrory administration and Duke Energy involving previous instances in which the company polluted ground water at two other sites.
The state proposed that Duke pay $99,111 to settle the environmental violations at Asheville and Riverbend. Environmentalists criticize the proposed fines as couch-cushion change for a company valued at nearly $50 billion.
“This is a common technique of regulators who are friendly with the law-breaking regulated entities,” (Frank Holleman, a senior attorney at the Southern Environmental Law Center) said. “They will come in and file at the very last minute and then quickly propose a favorable settlement to the lawbreaker to prevent the citizens group from leading the litigation.”
The settlement didn’t require Duke to actually clean up the pollution, but in an interesting twist, the McCrory administration, which had struck the deal, asked a court to reject it after the Associated Press reported on its existence.
And now federal investigators are eager to learn more about it.
- more -
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/subpoenas-raise-stakes-nc-criminal-probe
8 replies
= new reply since forum marked as read
= new reply since forum marked as read
http://greenpeaceblogs.org/2014/02/19/duke-energy-will-try-to-make-ratepayers-pay-to-clean-up-coal-ash-disaster/
Duke Energy’s executives want you to know they’re sorry for the tens of thousands of tons of coal ash they spilled into the Dan River in the third-largest disaster of its kind in US history. They’re sorry for the water that officials now admit is tainted with arsenic and is unsafe even to touch, no less for swimming, boating or fishing.
They’re sorry for the little animals — the clams, mussels and crustaceans — that form the base of the river’s ecosystem and are suffocating in a river of sludge. They’re sorry for the big ones — the birds, fish and turtles – that eat those little things. And most of all they’re sorry to the people living near the Dan who depend on all of it, directly or indirectly, for much of their local economy (and, as anyone who’s ever lived near a river knows, for much more than that.)
They’re just not sorry enough to pay to clean it up.
After all, why would Duke ask its executives or investors to pay to clean the mess they created when they can do what they always do when they screw something up: get their customers to foot the bill.
According to the Associated Press, George Everett, Duke’s director of environmental and legislative affairs, told state legislators on Monday:
that the company is sorry for the spill and will be accountable. Any costs incurred because of the cleanup will likely be passed on to ratepayers, not shareholders, he said.
“We have paid absolutely no attention to costs, to this point,” Everett said, responding to a lawmaker’s question about who will pay. “We’re focused on stopping the discharge and initiating the remediation of the river. But when costs do come into play, when we’ve had a chance to determine what those costs are, it’s usually our customers who pay our costs of operation.”
It takes audacity to say with one breath “we will be accountable” and also “but we won’t pay for it.”
..more..
---------------------
So sad! This is the first documented evidence of possible impacts on wildlife from the massive coal ash spill on the Dan River. Jenny Edwards from the Dan River Basin Association said “Turtles should be hibernating this time of year. It’s cold. They hibernate down in the mud. The fact that they’re crawling up on the bank and dying, even if it’s not in mass numbers… It’s highly unusual.”
TAKE ACTION and tell Governor McCrory that we want NC’s coal ash waste to be moved to dry, lined storage away from water sources: http://bit.ly/toxicspillsNC
Duke Energy’s executives want you to know they’re sorry for the tens of thousands of tons of coal ash they spilled into the Dan River in the third-largest disaster of its kind in US history. They’re sorry for the water that officials now admit is tainted with arsenic and is unsafe even to touch, no less for swimming, boating or fishing.
They’re sorry for the little animals — the clams, mussels and crustaceans — that form the base of the river’s ecosystem and are suffocating in a river of sludge. They’re sorry for the big ones — the birds, fish and turtles – that eat those little things. And most of all they’re sorry to the people living near the Dan who depend on all of it, directly or indirectly, for much of their local economy (and, as anyone who’s ever lived near a river knows, for much more than that.)
They’re just not sorry enough to pay to clean it up.
After all, why would Duke ask its executives or investors to pay to clean the mess they created when they can do what they always do when they screw something up: get their customers to foot the bill.
According to the Associated Press, George Everett, Duke’s director of environmental and legislative affairs, told state legislators on Monday:
that the company is sorry for the spill and will be accountable. Any costs incurred because of the cleanup will likely be passed on to ratepayers, not shareholders, he said.
“We have paid absolutely no attention to costs, to this point,” Everett said, responding to a lawmaker’s question about who will pay. “We’re focused on stopping the discharge and initiating the remediation of the river. But when costs do come into play, when we’ve had a chance to determine what those costs are, it’s usually our customers who pay our costs of operation.”
It takes audacity to say with one breath “we will be accountable” and also “but we won’t pay for it.”
..more..
---------------------
So sad! This is the first documented evidence of possible impacts on wildlife from the massive coal ash spill on the Dan River. Jenny Edwards from the Dan River Basin Association said “Turtles should be hibernating this time of year. It’s cold. They hibernate down in the mud. The fact that they’re crawling up on the bank and dying, even if it’s not in mass numbers… It’s highly unusual.”
TAKE ACTION and tell Governor McCrory that we want NC’s coal ash waste to be moved to dry, lined storage away from water sources: http://bit.ly/toxicspillsNC
"Ratepayers will"
Yeah that stand out doesn't it? Blatant. Ye Olde 'Privatize the profits/socialize the loss'
The RethugliCon Way
