The shadow of things to come: US investigates NC environment agency after coal-ash spill

“Power, wrongly used, defeats the oppressor as well as the oppressed.” 

                                                                                          ~Wally Lamb

Friends,

As I was reviewing the last Mining and Energy Commission audios for a new post, this article landed in my inbox: 

RALEIGH, N.C. — Federal authorities have launched a criminal investigation into North Carolina's environmental agency following a massive coal ash spill on the Dan River. The U.S. Attorney's Office issued a grand jury subpoena requesting records from the North Carolina Department of Environment and Natural Resources. They include emails, memos and reports from 2010 through the Feb. 2 spill. The Associated Press obtained a copy of the subpoena on Thursday. The spill at a Duke Energy plant in Eden spewed enough toxic ash into the river to fill 72 Olympic-sized pools. It was the third-largest coal ash spill in U.S. history.The order commands the state environmental agency's chief lawyer to appear next month before the grand jury in Raleigh. Agency spokesman Drew Elliot says the state will cooperate with the federal investigators.

Feds launch investigation into NC agency after coal ash spill

This is only the tip of the iceberg. Attendees of the Mining and Energy Commission meetings (including myself)  have been raising the issue of the North Carolina Department of Environment and Natural Resources' (DENR) political will to enforce the law.This is not unique to this new incarnation, but the expanded exemption of hundreds of DENR employees last summer, the changes in public record policy and the incessant pressure on DENR staff to perform (behave), are disturbing, to say the least. 

Read more here:

McCrory exempts more state workers from civil service protections 

True costs of NC's charging the public for the information it owns

Former DENR employee leaves her job with a blazing "Dear John" email

The Oil and Gas industry has already been meddling with our regulatory and political process. With  complicit or at least compliant DENR leadership, problems in affected communities will be trivialized or downright ignored. How realistic is it to think that the most powerful industry in the world can be controlled? You have a better chance of finding Bigfoot.

Read more here: http://www.newsobserver.com/2014/02/13/3618713/apnewsbreak-us-investigates-nc.html#emlnl=Breaking_News#storylink=cpy