On February 2, 2014, a coal ash spill polluted 70 miles of the Dan River near the North Carolina-Virginia line.  Duke Energy owns the Dan River Steam Station near Eden, NC and is responsible for the burst pipe that led to the spill.   The disaster triggered a series of actions on the part of the North Carolina Department of Energy and Natural Resources (DENR), the state attorney general, and now the EPA.  Citizen-activist groups like the well-organized Southern Environmental Law Center (SELC) and Water Keeper Alliance have pushed for more regulation and tighter restrictions on coal-powered plants.   Duke Energy, based in Charlotte, North Carolina and now the largest electric holding company in the U.S. after its recent merger with Progress Energy Carolinas, has 14 coal-fired plants and is in various stages of repairing facilities, converting from wet ash storage to dry ash, cleaning up toxic pollutants, and retiring old plants.   The Obama...(Read Full Post)