Activist Elizabeth Yeampierre has long focused on the connections between racial injustice and the environment and climate change. In the wake of George Floyd’s killing and the outsized impact of Covid-19 on communities of color, she hopes people may finally be ready to listen.
Environmental Justice
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Report: Duke Energy Policies Consistently Harm Low-Income Customers — EWG News Release
Duke Energy, the nation’s largest investor-owned electric utility, claims to make affordability, efficiency and access to renewable energy for its low-income customers a priority. But an investigation by the Environmental Working Group shows that just the opposite is true.
N.A.A.C.P. Tells Local Chapters: Don’t Let Energy Industry Manipulate You — NY Times
The civil rights group is trying to stop state and local branches from accepting money from utilities that promote fossil fuels and then lobbying on their behalf.
Advocates say the state is allowing environmental harm in low-income, minority counties — News & Observer
The state is failing low-income communities with large African-American and Native American populations by allowing polluting industries to concentrate in their counties, a group of residents said Wednesday as they demanded that an environmental justice advisory board do more to advocate for them.
Environmental activists seek reversal of NC permit for Atlantic Coast Pipeline — WRAL
Environmental activists called on Gov. Roy Cooper’s administration to reconsider a key permit issued for the Atlantic Coast Pipeline. The North Carolina Climate Solutions Coalition and Friends of the Earth filed a petition to revoke the permit issued last year under Section 401 of the Clean Water Act.
Groups target Duke Energy in extraordinary campaign to end monopoly control of NC electric system and public officials
A new, diverse coalition of 15 local, state and national groups today launched what they called a vigorous statewide campaign to end Duke Energy’s monopoly control of North Carolina’s energy markets and public officials, saying the corporation is harming communities, gouging consumers and making climate change worse. It’s a rare citizen-led effort organized to break up the monopoly control of a U.S. corporate utility.
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Robeson County Opposes Duke Rate Hike — Robesonian
Robeson County leaders are taking a stand against Duke Energy’s plan to seek state approval to charge more for the electricity it sells. The utility says its needs to raise rates to pay for costs incurred during recent weather events, including Hurricane Florence.
Everybody’s Movement: Dismantling Racism through Equity and Inclusion
NC WARN has worked through many years to challenge environmental racism and economic injustices in our campaigns to help protect communities and slow climate change. For the past few years, our board and staff have invested time and energy to focus on how we can be a more inclusive and equitable organization as we increasingly bring those who are first and worst impacted by climate change to the center of our work.
Duke Energy’s “Major Breakthrough for Renewables” – Energy from Hog Manure – was PR Fiction – News Release From NC WARN
Now, Duke Energy has admitted once again to state regulators that it can’t back the PR with action. It can’t meet a state renewable energy requirement that it generate a tiny amount of electricity from hog waste now or anytime soon. By 2018, 0.2 percent of the renewable requirement was supposed to come from hog waste.
A More Just Hurricane Florence Recovery Effort in North Carolina — OP-ED
Op-Ed by Connie Leeper and Jodi Lasseter. Now that the winds and rains of Hurricane Florence have gone, North Carolinians are mobilizing a relief and recovery process for the eastern part of the state… Without an intentional focus on equity and access, this kind of giving often misses the people who are most in need of assistance and who have been leading the work to build community resilience long before this storm hit.