Environment

Duke Energy earned $2.6 billion in the first half of the year, up almost 12% from a year ago. Tuesday’s earnings call comes weeks after Duke Energy Carolinas partially backed off its rate-hike request and slashed its return-on-equity demand.

As the halfway point for Charlotte City Council’s 150-day data center moratorium approaches, here’s what city staff have done since June and what they plan to do.

Thursday evening, state regulators hosted a public hearing for Amazon’s large data center project in Richmond County.

Amazon has started construction on a massive data center in Richmond County, across the street from Duke Energy’s natural gas-fired power plant.

A huge new Amazon data center development and the diesel-burning generators to power it are the subject of a hearing Thursday afternoon in Rockingham.

Nearly two years ago, Hurricane Helene brought unprecedented destruction to western North Carolina. A new graphic novel reminds readers that a 1,000-year storm like this could happen again in our lifetimes.

Bee-killing yellow-legged hornets have been spotted for the first time near Matthews. A Union County homeowner reported suspicious hornet activity at her hummingbird feeder to state officials at the North Carolina Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services.

A local nonprofit is installing an artificial reef at Lake Norman State Park to create a new habitat for fish.

Duke Energy Carolinas has reached a new settlement with businesses, clean energy groups and trade associations in its ongoing rate case. The utility had received an outpouring of customer criticism over its request for steep rate hikes filed last fall.

The Canadian wildfires continue burning. Now, the smoke from those blazes has drifted south, bringing down local air quality across North Carolina.