President Donald Trump and EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin announced Feb. 12 that the administration was rescinding its own endangerment finding that set the legal limits on the amount of pollutants a vehicle can emit.
News & Features
Amid record growth, groups protect tracts from development
Population growth on the North Carolina coast has ramped up pressure on conservation groups to acquire and set aside land, such as the more than 2,000 acres in coastal counties recently protected from development, areas with natural landscape features that reduce flood risk, improve water quality and provide vital habitat.
With court relief, work resumes on Virginia offshore wind
Dominion Energy’s 2.6-gigawatt Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind project, which was ordered by the Trump administration to stop work in December, is now on track for completion by early next year — but at a considerably higher cost.
Judge upholds that DEQ can set wastewater permit limits
A Wake County Superior Court decision upholds that N.C. Department of Environmental Quality has the authority to set limits of 1,4-dioxane discharges from public wastewater utilities.
Ocean Isle seeks to modify permit, nourish beach at east inlet
Officials in Ocean Isle Beach seek federal approval to have up to 70,000 cubic yards of sand placed east of the Brunswick County town’s terminal groin where erosion gnaws at the shoreline in front of a luxury neighborhood.
NC’s PFAS crisis a warning as Congress debates chemical laws
Supporters call the changes modernization; critics warn they could weaken safeguards in the Toxic Substances Control Act, the nation’s primary chemical safety law.
Causey urges council to help Outer Banks as more homes fall
“There’s some angry people out there,” Insurance Commissioner Mike Causey told members of the Council of State Tuesday, referring to the four houses that fell into the ocean last weekend, a total of 31 homes since 2020, and calls to end the ban on beach hardening.
Elizabeth II unable to leave for overdue maintenance … again
Once again, shoaling in a Roanoke Sound channel is preventing the state attraction Elizabeth II, a vessel representative of Lost Colony-era ships, from leaving its moorings at Roanoke Island Festival Park for maintenance.
Winter storm takes 4 Buxton houses, leaves inches of snow
The weekend storm that covered North Carolina with more than a foot of snow in some places caused four unoccupied Buxton houses to collapse in about 24 hours on Cape Hatteras National Seashore beaches.
Monthlong training exercise to take place at Bogue Field
Communities near Marine Corps bases in Jacksonville and Havelock, as well as the auxiliary landing field in Bogue on N.C. 24, should expect through February increased military vehicle traffic and noise associated with a monthlong training exercise starting Friday.
Fort Raleigh closer to installing shoreline erosion protection
Both the National Park Service and state have comment periods open on an erosional control measure along the shoreline of the national historic site on Roanoke Island.
Division OKs Corps’ request to pause state consistency review
The N.C. Division of Coastal Management has granted a request by the Corps of Engineers to indefinitely pause the division’s review of whether the proposed project conforms with state coastal management program laws, regulations and policies.
Harbor project may risk Orton, other Cape Fear historic sites
Advocates for and owners of historic sites near the North Carolina Port of Wilmington urge the state to object to a proposed federal project to deepen and widen the harbor to accommodate larger ships.
Commission OKs advancing wastewater rules to public review
The public will soon be able to lodge their comments about proposed rules mandating that public sewer plants test their treated discharge into rivers, creeks and streams for three types of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances and a chemical solvent.
New year, new definition: Feds set to limit water protections
The public has until Monday to comment on the Environmental Protection Agency and Army Corps of Engineers’ proposed changes to the “waters of the United States” definition that are expected to limit eligibility for federal water quality safeguards.
Imported shrimp served at restaurants touting local catch
A sizeable majority of Outer Banks restaurants that claim to serve local, wild-caught shrimp have been found through genetic testing to be serving imported farm-raised shrimp instead.
