"After months of wincing in the face of negative ads funded by the industrialists David and Charles Koch, Democrats believe they have finally found a way to fight back: attacking the brothers’ sprawling business conglomerate as callous and indifferent to the lives of ordinary people while pursuing profit and power."

"A North Carolina judge on Friday denied Duke Energy's motion seeking to shield records related to groundwater pollution leaching from 33 coal ash dumps in the state while a separate federal criminal investigation is ongoing."

As a rising ocean eats away at North Carolina, a GOP legislature that seems to be driven by politics and profit is also washing away hard science.

"A tax credit for wind-energy production made it after all into a Senate bill that would revive a host of expired breaks for numerous industries."

"Even when pollution discharges from shale gas well pads and impoundments contaminate private water supplies, those violations often go unrecorded or publicly reported by state environmental regulators, according to documents filed in the Pennsylvania Superior Court case challenging the constitutionality of the state's oil and gas law, Act 13."

"The Senate Finance Committee’s abrupt move to take up “tax extenders” legislation is testing the lobbying clout of the renewable energy sector and other special interests in Washington."

"Environmental groups believe a large favor was handed to corporations, billionaires and the campaigns they fund when U.S. Supreme Court justices decided Wednesday to strike down overall limits on campaign contributions."

"The Tennessee branch of Americans For Prosperity (AFP) — funded by conservative billionaires Charles and David Koch — has been working with lawmakers opposed to mass transit projects in the state."

"Faced with public outrage about gritty black dust blowing through Chicago’s Southeast Side, Mayor Rahm Emanuel talked of forcing towering mounds of petroleum coke out of Chicago and outlawing new piles with costly regulations. But the fine print of a zoning ordinance unveiled Tuesday by the Emanuel administration opens the door for greater use of the high-sulfur, high-carbon refinery byproduct in the city."