Duke Energy paiud 102.2 million for this coal ash spill
CreditL WSJ

RALEIGH – The NC House of Representatives approved a coal ash bill that environmentalists are describing as a bailout and a giveaway to Duke Energy, which will no longer be required to excavate toxic coal ash from all of its waste sites across the state.

H630 was approved in a concurrence vote Thursday evening. The bill takes the unprecedented step of requiring Duke to provide clean drinking water to residents living within a half mile of its coal ash waste dumps — a provision which amounts to an acknowledgment from legislators that leaving coal ash in leaking pits poses serious risks to people around it.

Concern for residents in coal ash territory did not extend any further, however, as H630 builds in mechanisms that will allow Duke to leave its toxic ash next to many of these residences indefinitely. So long as drinking water and some dam safety concerns are addressed, the Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) will be required to classify several sites […]