On July 28, Technician columnist Laura Villegas Ortiz echoed Duke Energy and Gov. Pat McCrory in their call to cap existing coal ash ponds instead of launching a complete cleanup effort. As Duke Energy and McCrory have argued, the lack of sufficient scientific evidence does not necessitate precautionary measures at this time, and such an effort might be costly and dangerous. Although Ortiz’s analysis of the facts as the governor presented them is largely fair, her piece omits the much more nuanced history of our governor’s relationship with the energy industry, and its troubling implications.
Recently, after state toxicologist Ken Rudo gave testimony indicating that the state’s reversal of the drinking water ban in affected areas was premature because of the high concentration of hexavalent chromium, the governor’s spokesperson responded by claiming that Rudo lied under oath. The governor’s response shocked environmentalists, and prompted state epidemiologist Megan Davies to resign in protest.
For more than two years now, residents of the areas closest to the coal ash ponds have had to grapple with the insecurity of not knowing whether their water is poisoning them. Rightly so, the decision to reverse the drinking water ban was met with suspicion about the motives of the McCrory administration. Since the 2014 spill, Duke Energy and the administration have been the target of harsh criticism, but the state government has shielded the company from facing serious consequences.
Since the beginning of the crisis, McCrory has scaled back many existing coal ash regulations and the Department of Environmental Quality agreed to reduce Duke Energy’s $25.1 million fine to just $7 million. This latest reversal and denial of scientific evidence should serve to remind North Carolinians that McCrory was a 28-year Duke Energy employee.
While Duke Energy’s negligence is reprehensible, voters this November shouldn’t be surprised that both protection of destructive industries and denial of scientific evidence are characteristic of our state government, whose close relationship with the energy industry should be cause for alarm. This latest statement from McCrory in service of his former employer and current (albeit indirect) donor is just the latest in a series of baffling denials of fact. Duke Energy’s donations to the Republican Governors Association, a fundraising organization that supported McCrory, have been sizable and fairly regular, according to the Charlotte Observer. Just four months after the Dan River spill, in 2014, Duke Energy began a series of donations that totaled $3.05 million to the RGA and became its biggest corporate donor that year.
A 2015 investigation by the Institute for Southern Studies found that McCrory is also chair of the Outer Continental Shelf Governors Association, an astroturf organization managed by energy industry lobbyists, which promotes offshore drilling around the continental United States. According to another probe by ISS, Duke Energy has recently invested in federal elections, donating $150,000 to the Senate Leadership Fund. This super PAC works to maintain the Republican majority in the U.S. Senate and includes donors like Chevron and several other regional energy companies.
The McCrory administration’s recent statements asserting that Rudo was lying under oath — while the governor was not — should be the last straw, not only for those immediately affected by the contamination, but for all North Carolinians. The governor’s actions reveal his willingness to put his relationship with Duke Energy and his reelection prospects above the lives of the citizens of North Carolina.
As is the case in most environmental disasters, drinking water — the most basic necessity — has been compromised for some of North Carolina’s poorest rural communities. They are now at the mercy of a corrupt and unresponsive government. Those of us who live outside the affected areas can make shallow assessments of the costs and benefits of cleanup efforts, but to grumble about economics is a shameful distraction from a very real human crisis.
Eventually, the government’s denial of the facts will impact everyone in the state. As our government continues to be willfully oblivious to imminent environmental dangers, we’ve reached a point where we can no longer worry about cleanup costs. We must now address the root of these endless problems: our irresponsible government.
