Energy & Environment

Shareholders of SCANA voted Tuesday to sell the South Carolina utility to Virginia-based Dominion Energy, which has agreed to swallow billions of dollars in debt from the company's failed nuclear construction project and other operations.

Federal regulators are allowing work on the 600-mile Atlantic Coast Pipeline to expand in North Carolina.

Electricity rates will increase slightly for thousands of households in central and western North Carolina even though state regulators rejected Duke Energy's most recent rate hike request, the company said Wednesday.

Duke Energy has put out a call for companies that want to build new large-scale solar farms around the state.  The projects would satisfy a 2017 state law that requires the company to seek competitive bids for new solar projects.

A string of decisions by North Carolina regulators this year means electricity consumers could be seeing a multibillion-dollar bill to clean up mountains of waste Duke Energy created over decades burning coal to produce power.

Duke Energy says state regulators' Friday order denying its request for a rate hike in its western North Carolina territory could still mean a small rate increase for customers. 

State regulators have rejected Duke Energy's request for a rate increase and instead ordered slight rate reductions in its western North Carolina territory, including Charlotte. The order doesn't say exactly what Duke's new rates will be, and it's still possible some customers could see slight rate increases.

North Carolina Attorney General Josh Stein says a proposed settlement that would allow Duke Energy to begin charging customers for electric grid improvements is unfair to ratepayers. That's in a filing with utilities regulators Friday in response to Duke's proposed agreement with a group of environmental and business groups.  

North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper has joined governors from four other coastal states in opposing proposed federal legislation that sets new rules for offshore oil and gas production. 

The state's utility consumer advocate and other groups are opposing Duke Energy's agreement earlier this month to limit a planned $7.8 billion electric grid modernization program.  The North Carolina Utilities Commission Public Staff, the environmental group NC WARN, and the Carolina Utility Customers Association say the program would result in unacceptably higher rates.

Mooresville-based Lowe's said Tuesday it will phase out sales of paint strippers containing methylene chloride and the solvent NMP by year's end.  The move comes amid a push by environmental groups to outlaw the chemicals, which can be lethal if inhaled.

Duke Energy’s first-quarter shares are up slightly from last year, according to an earnings report released by the Charlotte-based company Thursday morning.