Carbon

The state Senate will soon vote on a bill that would eliminate North Carolina’s 2030 carbon pollution reduction target. The bill also allows Duke Energy to recover costs on power generating facilities while still under construction, instead of after the utility completes them.

In the fight against global warming, markets have emerged in recent years for buying and selling what are known as carbon offsets. The money helps pay for projects like tree planting or solar farms that remove or reduce carbon emissions. Sounds good, right? But there are lots of questions whether offsets do what they say they do. WFAE climate reporter David Boraks takes a look at how they're being used in the Carolinas, and how users and critics are thinking about them.

Education dominated the news this week — despite most schools being on summer break. U.S. Education Secretary Miguel Cardona visited Charlotte, and the CMS board held its first in-person meeting since the start of the coronavirus pandemic. That meeting saw a debate over how schools handle racism — and a protest outside the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Government Center over how allegations of sexual assault were handled at Myers Park High.

As Hurricane season begins this week, there’s something to keep in mind. Although these storms are known for bad things like strong winds, heavy rain,…

Slow energy demand and carbon emission cuts are putting major pressure on the power industry, a top Duke Energy executive said today. Chief Financial…

Duke Energy is exploring the option of entering the fracking business. While the company says it has not made any decisions, it would mark a departure…

North Carolina will have to reduce its rate of carbon emissions from power plants 40 percent to comply with a rule the Environmental Protection Agency…

Duke’s Edwardsport plant in Indiana is a “coal gasification” plant, meaning the coal gets turned into a gas and some of the pollutants get filtered out,…

We have discussed global warming and how we can reduce our carbon footprint several times on this show but we generally focused on the debate about…