Standing outside the Duke Energy Center in Charlotte, North Carolina Tuesday, roughly one hundred protesters chanted, “Shame!”—scolding the company responsible for last month’s coal ash spill into the Dan River.
The utility has fallen under increased scrutiny since a federal investigation was initiated into the ties between the administration of North Carolina Governor Pat McCrory (R) and the utility company where he worked for 28 years.
Earlier this month, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Raleigh issued subpoenas to Duke Energy and the North Carolina Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), demanding all documents related to the Dan River spill.
The probe was expanded last week, when subpoenas were issued to 18 state water-quality officials calling for all communications with Duke going back to 2009 as well as any payments and gifts from the company. Further, NCDENR received another subpoena for “ash-related records for all 14 of Duke’s active and retired coal-fired plants in the state,” the Charlotte Observer reports.
Reporting on the probe, MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow noted last week that investigators “appear to be looking to see if anyone got paid off by Duke Energy when they were working for Pat McCrory’s administration to supposedly regulate Duke Energy.”
“These close ties between industry and government, we see that a lot throughout Appalachia,” Eric Chance, water quality specialist for the environmental watchdog Appalachian Voices, told Common Dreams. In coal producing states, he continued, “environmental regulatory agencies are pretty much there to do the bidding of the industries they are supposed to regulate.”
Chance added that he was glad the ties between government and industry were “getting some attention” with the North Carolina investigation.
SCROLL TO CONTINUE WITH CONTENT