NC Roundup

What’s going on around North Carolina, with an everlasting tip-of-the-hat to NC ConNet.

Are there organizations in other states that do what they do? Compile all the major environmental stories from state and national media and send it out in a daily email? Its great!

Attorney General Roy Cooper has been hard at work to protect out air quality. This week, he asked a federal appeals court to review the EPA’s denial of his request for action on out-of-state air pollution blowing into North Carolina.

NC’s birding trail takes shape.

Environmentalists accused state utility companies Tuesday of overestimating future energy needs to justify their plans to build more nuclear and coal-burning power plants.

The fight to save hemlocks marches on.

Appalachian Students voted overwhelmingly for a $5 fee increase to go towards renewable energy. They’ve raised over $150,000, and even more importantly, raised awareness.

Saving farms is not about nostalgia. As change continues at its rapidly accelerating pace, having protected private land on which to grow crops could become an important part of the American economy.

That outrageous bill to allow North Carolina billboard companies to cut down twice as many public trees on public property would probably also raise your city and county property taxes.

The town of Bryson City finalized a conservation easement this month that will protect a 750-acre tract known as Lands Creek

Agri-Ethanol Products LLC plans to build North Carolina’s first ethanol plant in Beaufort County. The plant would use locally grown corn to make 100 million gallons a year..

It is fitting that North Carolina, Virginia and Tennessee are leading the fight to keep new roads out of old forests. National forests in the three states are some of the most stunningly beautiful and environmentally sensitive in the country.

Conservancy officials try to stop poaching of Venus flytraps.

About JW Randolph

Raised on the banks of the Tennessee River, JW's work to create progress in his home state and throughout Appalachia has been featured on the Rachel Maddow Show, The Daily Kos and Grist. He served first as Appalachian Voices’ Legislative Associate and then Tennessee director until leaving to pursue a career in medicine in 2012.