"Mega-utility Duke Energy is about to knock down a coal plant that has run west of Charlotte, North Carolina, since 1957. Soon the company will build its largest grid battery on that spot, part of an unprecedented energy-storage construction spree."

"Until earlier this week, most residents of this town east of Asheville had no drinkable tap water for 52 days. After the storm damaged infrastructure around the region, water had been partly restored in mid-October. It was good for flushing toilets but not safe for consumption. In some places, sediment left the water inky like black tea."

"Entergy proposes a new $3.2 billion natural gas plant to run a ‘game changing’ data center in northeast Louisiana; critics question the move"

"Spear points, hammer stones and picks lost to history under layers of leaves, roots and rocks — it was the evidence Scott Ashcraft was looking for."

"There’s a tranquility to western North Carolina’s forests. The quiet here is part of the reason Leo Temko and Janice Barnes chose a hillside northeast of Asheville as an escape from New York City, where they spend half their time."

"The state is tied for dead last in renewable energy adoption. Little surprise, with so much fossil fuel money flowing to its commissioners."

"A new groundbreaking survey highlights the human toll from pollution and other quality of life impacts connected to those living near the forest biomass industry’s wood pellet mills in the U.S Southeast. Door-to-door interviews were conducted by a coalition of NGOs, with 312 households surveyed in five mostly poor, rural and minority communities located near pellet mills"