"...you will never guess what the North Carolina Environmental Management Commission did."

[babylonsister]

http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politics/north-carolina-appeals-coal-ash-ruling-040814

North Carolina's Coal Ash Problem

By Charles P. Pierce on April 8, 2014


AP Photo/Gerry Broome

Amy Adams, North Carolina campaign coordinator with Appalachian Voices, shows her hand covered with wet coal ash from the Dan River.


There's a lot of very weird stuff going on in the newly insane state of North Carolina. The state has a problem with coal ash, and with its groundwater, and with the reluctance of Duke Energy to clean up, among other things, the 39,000 fking pounds of the gunk that it spilled into the Dan River in February. The state's Environmental Management Commission decided that Duke Energy needed a "reasonable amount of time" to correct the groundwater violations. (As should be obvious, you could sail a coal barge through that adjective there.) A Superior Court judge said to hell with that noise and reversed the commission's findings, demanding that the clean-up begin immediately.

And you will never guess what the North Carolina Environmental Management Commission did.

No, really, you will never guess.

Give up?

They appealed the judge's ruling.

Told you that you wouldn't believe it.

D.J. Gerken, a lawyer with the Southern Environmental Law Center, said the state is giving away its authority to force Duke to act by appealing Ridgeway's ruling. "If the state is serious about enforcing the law, why in the world would the state ask the (N.C.) Court of Appeals to limit that authority?" he said.

In other words, the state's environmental management board is going to court essentially on behalf of Duke Energy. I wonder how that possibly could have happened.

North Carolina's base appropriations budget, ratified Thursday, fires all current members of the state's environmental rule-making board effective next Wednesday. The move gives Gov. Pat McCrory and the Republican-led legislature, which has targeted environmental regulation as a drag on business, a clean slate to remake the powerful Environmental Management Commission. The commission is charged with adopting rules protecting air and water resources.

Meanwhile, the whole state is tying itself up in knots over this coal ash business. There's tons of it laying around in ponds and in obsolete energy facilities. The latest plan seems to be to bury it near the airport in Charlotte -- which is said to be better than storing it in unlined ponds.

"The reality is, it's much better than the way they store it at the power plant," said Hartwell Carson, the French Broad riverkeeper. He and other environmental groups have been monitoring the project to take millions of tons of coal ash from a Duke Energy power plant and use it as a "structural fill" material to grade land in preparation for construction. "I don't have a lot of concerns about it in the short term," Carson said. "Fifty, 100 years from now? I'd say all bets are off."

Your great-grandchildren send their regards.

[Warpy]

1. In related news

Water is still wet

Republicans are insanely corrupt

and people in NC are still stupid enough to vote them in.

[Tansy_Gold]

4. +1 (or more) n/t

[bluemarkers]

6. not this person thank you very much and

I do object to the word "still" It was one election in over 100 years. (however) OMG rwnjs are freaking insane, and feel free to use NC as an example what will happen if we as a nation allow them to feed at the trough. Moral Mondays is a very positive movement and may do far more good in NC and other states ... hopefully ... fingers crossed ... please help even though they have seemingly gerrymandered themselves into winning elections, let's hope we can return to our normal progressive selves very soon.

[mindwalker_i]

7. Voting Republican is like celebrating retardation

I guess that's why Republicans push religion and try to downplay science. If people were to look around them at how screwed up a place they're living in and comprehend the cause, Republicans wouldn't get elected.

[marew]

22. A bit insensitive I believe- I would prefer you used the word stupid, callous, greedy...

During my career I met many mentally challenged individuals who have more kindness, thoughtfulness, and goodness in them than anyone I've heard of in the GOP.

[alarimer]

9. Blame Art Pope for a lot of it.

He's a Koch wanna-be, but still influential enough here to get things like this done.

The secretary of my agency doesn't believe in climate change. He also thinks oil is a renewable resource (well, technically, it might be, if you have billions of years).

[Warpy]

16. Oh, yeah, good old Art Pope

You're right about him, he's been using his money to do a lot of really bad shit down there with all the Republicans he's bought.

I lived there and I hate to see it happening. By the time the majority wakes the fuck up, there won't be much left to enjoy, including such luxuries like drinking water and land that will grow non poisonous veggies.

[ladyVet]

13. Oh, fuck off.

Not all of us vote for these idiots, and you know it. Believe it or not, people in every single goddamn state vote for the wrong people. Ask the voters of Massachusetts what happened after Ted Kennedy died. How about asking the voters of the great liberal bastion of California how many stupid Republicans they've voted for. It's a lot.

I'm going to tell you something you will probably ignore: if the Democratic party spent some time, effort and money in the South, they'd have a lot more votes.

But hey, we're just a bunch of fat, ignorant, toothless rednecks, right? Who needs us? Well, except for every election, it seems like nobody.

[Warpy]

15. Too bad you are not the majority, isn't it?

I agree that the DLC has always been dead wrong about where to fight. Sadly, those conservatives didn't learn from Dr Dean's 50 State Strategy. Once he was out, they went back to what didn't work.

And NC, AS A WHOLE, is stupid enough to keep voting Republican.

[octoberlib]

36. Gerrymandering is killing us. Percentage wise Democrats won control of the General Assembly

last year but Republicans got more seats. You know it's bad when even the Republicans start showing up at Moral Mondays...... but will they vote against their party? That's the question.

[wolfie001]

24. If I lived there (NC) I'd move.....

just on principal alone. The Governor is an ugly troglodyte for kripe's sakes! Just sayin'......

[barbtries]

19. they're not relying on just stupid to keep them around

http://pulse.ncpolicywatch.org/2014/04/08/nc-gerrymandering-takes-full-effect/

i wanna go home.

[KoKo]

23. The only Southern State to go for Obama in '08? North Carolina!

What happened after that has been written about.

So...don't go trashing the good people of NC who had to deal with Art Pope/Koch Bros./ALEC and a Dem Party that fell apart after '08 due to their own leadership problems who got little to no help after Obama won and Dean's Party Activism and "50 State Strategy" was abandoned. Lots of activists were cut out...and we didn't have the financing or support to be able to beat back what the Popes/Kochs/Alec and RW Tea Partiers had waiting.

I get so angry at the NC bashing.

[IronLionZion]

33. water is now sludge from the coal ash

and less wet.

There are all kinds of people in NC, including liberals

[Warpy]

35. Maybe that's what it will take to wake the majority up and stop them voting stupidly.

It makes me sick to think of such beautiful country being spoiled by greedheads.

[spanone]

2. k&r...

[Stuart G]

3. K and R thanks for posting

[sheshe2]

5. WTF!

The state's environmental management board should be so proud! Let's have another round of applause, for an agency bought and paid for!

Who the hell needs to protect the environment when their is money to be made.

RIP Mother Earth





Thank you, bsis. Depressing as it is. This needs to be said over and over again.

[Dustlawyer]

8. K&R!!! Can you say, "Quid Pro Quo" corruption?

[Ned Fenwick]

10. What do you mean, "insane"?

There's nothing insane about it. They have no choice. This what the lack of campaign reform on various levels has brought us. Lobbyists run the state legislatures, using threats and lots of dirty plutocrat money. These "legislators" are going to do what they're told, or else. And it's going to get lots worse - the end.

[octoberlib]

37. +1 ALEC totally owns NC's General Assembly.

[dougolat]

11. Now that's bisiness friendly with benefits! nt

[hue]

12. Corporate lack of responsibility & empathy for all life is remarkable, terrible!!

North Carolina Environmental Management Commission; bought sold & delivered!!

[RainDog]

14. welcome to the corporate dystopia n/t

[GoCubsGo]

17. That's not all they did.

The state also gutted the Department of Environment and Natural Resources budget. From what I understand the DENR recently laid off 10% of the Water Division--the ones who monitor the waterways, and who enforce environmental laws. None of this is surprising, considering the Governor is a former Duke Energy bigwig.

[hatrack]

18. And the layoffs came nearly two months AFTER the Dan River blowout

Yeah, good timing, guys.

[Enthusiast]

20. Corporate rule, "It's good for everyone."

[malthaussen]

21. Yeah, they appealed being told to do their jobs.

Thought that was hilarious. And pathetic.

-- Mal

[MynameisBlarney]

25. If it wasn't for having a lot of relatives and friends in NC

I'd never ever go back.
This is horrible! My heart breaks.

[progressoid]

26. Ahhhhhrgh!

[proReality]

27. "Your great-grandchildren send their regards."

And those regards are all 4 letter words.

[Martin Eden]

28. This should be criminal on more than one level.

And the penalties should go beyond monetary to jail time, for both the polluters and the crooked politicians.

[loudsue]

29. Can't the federal government step in here?

This is pure insanity! I'm in North Carolina, and I can tell you, there are already a mess of bad effects from this happening in people's lives.

[rwsanders]

30. They should have done what MO did and allow the dumps along the river (Missouri) so the problem...

disappears every time there is high water.

[DeSwiss]

31. Some bank account checkin' needs to get underway.

Anyone that stupid will no doubt have left a clear trail of breadcrumbs.

- Leading right to their door step.

K&R

[november3rd]

32. "Stewardship"

Ah, nothing like the Radical Authoritarian Right wing Christians practice of Genesis 2:15

[valerief]

34. Clearly the state's environmental mgmt board IS Duke Energy. nt