This piece, written by Dr. Olson Huff, originally ran in the Raleigh News & Observer on May 18, 2013. As a doctor, I regularly witness how harmful pollution created by burning coal and other fossil fuels affects public health. As a pediatrician, I have spent decades caring for children whose health is most compromised when [...]
It all started with bombs. During the First World War, the federal government built two nitrate plants at Muscle Shoals, Alabama, for making explosives. Wilson Dam was built to supply electricity to these plants. After the war ended, there was disagreement over what to do with the site. Industrialists like Henry Ford envisioned the rise [...]
Installing a solar energy system on a home in Florida may soon be less of a financial headache for residential property owners. That’s because the Florida legislature recently passed House bill 277. It exempts the value of renewable energy devices from the assessed value of new and existing residential property. The bill awaits the governor’s [...]
UPDATE: On Thursday, May 15, the Senate Environmental and Public Works Committee voted along party lines to approve Gina McCarthy’s nomination (every Republican, including all four Republican Senators from the Southeast opposed McCarthy’s nomination). Up next, McCarthy’s nomination will go before the full Senate for a vote. McCarthy will likely face a tough vote in the Senate. [...]
Last Wednesday, the American Lung Association released its 2013 “State of the Air” report – an annual highlight of cities and regions around the country with unhealthy levels of smog and soot which lead to increased asthma attacks, heart attacks and even premature death. What a difference a few years – and stronger pollution standards [...]
This post is written by Reverend Dr. Gerald L. Durley, Pastor Emeritus, Providence Missionary Baptist Church, Atlanta, GA and consultant for SACE. As we celebrate Earth Month and reflect on bringing awareness and appreciation for the environment, it is incumbent on each of us to intensify our efforts to protect God’s perfect creation. For several [...]
On Friday, April 19, the Environmental Protection Agency met a court-ordered deadline and released long-awaited draft Coal Water Pollution Standards (also known as Effluent Limitation Guidelines or ELGs). These standards, originally scheduled for completion in 2012, are needed to replace woefully outdated rules to regulate wastewater discharges from coal ash, the toxic residue remaining when coal [...]
UPDATE: A proposal to end North Carolina’s renewable energy program was defeated by a surprisingly wide margin on Wednesday, April 24 in a legislative committee chaired by the bill’s sponsor, Rep. Mike Hager (R-Rutherford). Those opposing the proposal cited concerns that it would hurt businesses and job creation in the state’s fast-growing clean energy industry. [...]
This post is being reposted from a blog written by SACE staff, Seandra Pope and Amelia Shenstone, for the Partnership for Southern Equity originally published on their website on February 27, 2013. The Southern Alliance for Clean Energy is excited to collaborate with the Partnership for Southern Equity to highlight the important role that energy consumption and [...]
This guest post about North Carolina energy policy was written by Tim Toben and originally published on the News Observer website. If the General Assembly wants to establish itself as the most business unfriendly, anti-jobs and anti-growth legislature in the nation, it will pass the recently filed bill oxymoronically titled the “Affordable and Reliable Energy [...]