By Ted Caddell
CHAPEL HILL, N.C. — A dispute between North Carolina’s governor and a veteran state scientist over Duke Energy’s coal ash practices has exploded into the public, with the scientist’s boss resigning in protest.
The state epidemiologist, Dr. Megan Davies, resigned Wednesday night, after Assistant Environmental Secretary Tom Reeder and state Health Director Randall Williams posted a statement criticizing her staffer’s concerns. The statement said toxicologist Ken Rudo’s “questionable and inconsistent scientific conclusions” had “created unnecessary fear and confusion among North Carolinians.”
Last year, Rudo balked at putting his name on a letter downplaying the risk of groundwater contamination near Duke power plants, despite being pressured by higher-ups in a meeting that he said included Gov. Pat McCrory, a Republican and former Duke Energy executive. McCrory has denied taking part in the meeting.
In her resignation letter, Davies was blunt. “I cannot work for a department and an administration that deliberately misleads the public,” she wrote.
McCrory and his administration have been dogged by the Duke coal ash issue since February 2014, when a dike at a retired Duke plant burst, releasing 39,000 tons of toxin-laden coal ash and 27 million gallons of contaminated water into the Dan River.
The dispute became public this month after a judge released portions of a deposition Rudo gave in a lawsuit by the Sierra Club, the Southern Environmental Law Center and other environmental groups over Duke’s coal ash storage sites. The suit alleges that toxins from coal ash stored on Duke sites are contaminating rivers and other waterways and groundwater. It calls on Duke to safely remove the coal ash and ensure residents living near the plants have clean water.
By the end of the week, Democrats in the state legislature were calling for a probe into the whole affair.
Meeting with the Governor
In his deposition, Rudo testified his office sent a warning to about 400 homeowners near Duke plants in late 2014, telling them their well water wasn’t safe to drink because of pollution from Duke’s coal ash.
Rudo said groundwater samples showed increased levels of hexavalent chromium and vanadium, both cancer-causing agents. As a result, while the issue was still being debated by Duke and other state environmental and health officials, Duke began supplying some of the homeowners with bottled water.
Rudo said that in early 2015, he was called in to a discussion with Reeder and other higher-ups about the wording of the letters. “They wanted language put on there that stated, in essence, we were overreacting in telling people not to drink their water,” Rudo said in the deposition. He said he objected to the wording and told them to take his name off the letter.
“You know, I can’t stand behind that,” he said. “It is just not right. It is going to confuse people. People are not going to really know whether they should drink the water or not,” Rudo testified.
The dispute came to a head, he said, when he was called to another meeting with a McCrory aide in March 2015 in which McCrory briefly took part by phone. “I have never talked to a governor in all of the years I have been here, so I was a little … intimidated,” he said.
Rudo said McCrory and the aide raised concerns about the department warning people not to drink the water.
The language on the letters was changed, and the revised letter was sent out while he was on vacation. “And it was just amazingly misleading and dishonest language,” Rudo said.
In May 2015, EPA fined Duke $102 million for federal Clean Water Act violations; North Carolina added a $6.6 million penalty.
Following public outcry, North Carolina legislators passed legislation calling for Duke to clean up all of its coal ash dumps in the state.
McCrory, who had worked for Duke for almost three decades before becoming governor, vetoed the bill in June 2016. Last month, he signed a compromise bill calling for Duke to begin cleaning up half of its coal storage sites immediately while monitoring the rest.
Deposition Becomes Public
The dispute became public last week after the Southern Environmental Law Center filed Rudo’s redacted deposition in the group’s lawsuit.
The McCrory administration fired back. “We don’t know why Ken Rudo lied under oath, but the governor absolutely did not take part in or request this call or meeting, as he suggests,” said McCrory’s chief of staff during a rare, late-night press conference.
When Rudo stood by his testimony, the administration issued a scathing statement Aug. 9.
“Rudo’s unprofessional approach to this important matter does a disservice to public health and environmental protection in North Carolina,” Reeder and Williams wrote. “It doesn’t help that political special interest groups perpetuate his exaggerations and fuel alarm among citizens for their own purposes.”
The statement was the last straw for Davies, who issued a letter resigning from the Division of Public Health (DPH) on Wednesday night. Davies defended Rudo and claimed her superiors in DPH and the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) were fully involved in all decisions.
“The [statement] signed by Randall Williams and Tom Reeder presents a false narrative of a lone scientist … acting independently to set health screening levels and make water use recommendations to well owners,” she wrote. “In fact, and as I briefed you in August 2015, NCDHHS followed a process that engaged DPH and DHHS leadership in all decisions.
“Upon reading the open editorial yesterday evening, I can only conclude that the department’s leadership is fully aware that this document misinforms the public,” she wrote. “I cannot work for a department and an administration that deliberately [mislead] the public.”
McCrory addressed the dispute again while at a ribbon cutting ceremony on Thursday.
“We basically have a disagreement among scientists,” McCrory said, according to WRAL. “One group of scientists, which I support, believe the public ought to get all the information about the water, not limited information and one opinion.”
State Democrats, in their continued feud with McCrory and his administration, are calling for an investigation. “There is at least an appearance of pay-to-play politics, and, unlike other incidents of McCrory rewarding his friends and donors with political favors, this insider dealing puts lives at risk,” North Carolina Democratic Party spokesman Dave Miranda told reporters.
It is unclear who would lead such an investigation. The state attorney general, Roy Cooper, is running against McCrory for governor in November.
Twelve companies reported increases in revenue, while 15 reported reductions and three were unchanged. The outliers were 
“RGGI continues to prove itself as an effective means of reducing carbon emissions and supporting economic growth,” said Daniel L. Sosland, Acadia Center president. “Now, Northeast and Mid-Atlantic states have an opportunity to build on RGGI’s success and lead the country by taking the steps necessary to meet state and federal climate requirements.”
Delaware officials are asking federal regulators to take action against a coal-fired West Virginia plant they say is contributing to pollution in the First State.
A public interest group said Gov. Jerry Brown and California Democrats have received more than $9.8 million in campaign contributions from energy companies during the past eight years.
The California Energy Commission is initiating a series of pilot programs next year that will attempt to generate electricity from sensors in the roadway triggered by cars driving along the state’s freeways.
The Office of the People’s Counsel (OPC) is asking the D.C. Court of Appeals to examine the Public Service Commission’s order approving the Pepco/Exelon merger. (See 
A group of 14 landowners has filed a motion in Polk County District Court seeking to halt construction of the $3.8 billion Dakota Access Pipeline, asking the court to review the Iowa Utilities Board (IUB) ruling that the pipeline could use eminent domain.
The Corporation Commission said last week its members will consider whether Great Plains Energy’s proposed acquisition of Westar Energy will “promote the public interest” when it votes on the deal next year. Commissioners adopted merger standards for the Westar/Great Plains union and two other unrelated mergers to ensure the KCC takes a “consistent approach.”
The KCC is expected to hear the Westar Energy and Great Plains acquisition docket sometime between Jan. 3 and March 30. The two other acquisitions in front of the KCC are the purchase of Empire District Electric Co., of Joplin, Mo., by Liberty Utilities (Central) Co., a subsidiary of Algonquin Power & Utilities Corp., and a proposal for ITC Holdings to become an indirect, majority-owned subsidiary of FortisUS with minority ownership by GIC Ventures.
The Kentucky Public Service Commission has approved a request by Louisville Gas & Electric Co. (LG&E) to assess a new monthly charge for customers to pay for the cleanup of coal ash ponds. The commission approved the charge of 30 cents a month for this year for the typical residential customer, which will increase to $2.08 a month in 2024.
Some consumers in the state are expecting electricity price increases in the coming years because of DTE Energy’s decision earlier this year to shut down seven coal-fired plants.
Consumers Energy in installing more safety buoys across rivers below its Michigan hydroelectric dams to warn swimmers and boaters of the dangers of swirling water released from impoundments.
The Public Service Commission’s claims of jurisdiction over the $12.2 billion acquisition of a Kansas utility by Great Plains Energy could have significant impact on the deal. Commission staff says job cuts and possible outsourcing spurred by the proposed acquisition could harm existing customers of Great Plains’ subsidiary, Kansas City Power & Light.
A state hearing examiner has recommended a 67% reduction to Public Service Company of New Mexico’s (PNM) rate increase request, from $123.5 million a year to $41.3 million a year. The recommendation would result in a 6.4% increase for the average customer, compared to 14.4% under PNM’s request.
Members of Standing Rock Sioux Tribe blocked crews working on the $3.8 billion Dakota Access pipeline that is to carry crude oil from North Dakota to terminals in Illinois.
Oklahoma has experienced a decline in earthquakes compared to last year, and some geophysicists believe that more stringent regulation of underground injection of wastewater from oil and gas drilling operations may deserve some of the credit.
A report by the Public Utility Commission says Penelec customers saw more power failures last year compared with consumers of electricity from other large companies in the state.
