News

Johnston Commissioners Reject CSX Rail Terminal

RALEIGH — At an emergency closed-session meeting Wednesday night, less than a week after Gov. Pat McCrory announced a $272 million CSX rail terminal project near Selma, the Johnston County Board of Commissioners issued a statement opposing both the project at the current location and the railroad company’s threats to use eminent domain to acquire property for the transportation hub.

Don Carrington
News

State Bar Complaint Targets Roy Cooper

RALEIGH — A longstanding feud between Raleigh attorney Gene Boyce and state Attorney General Roy Cooper that appeared to be over in 2014 reignited last week, when Boyce filed a complaint against the North Carolina State Bar claiming that Cooper should be investigated for professional misconduct. According to the complaint, Boyce has notified the State Bar on multiple occasions about Cooper’s alleged misconduct but the State Bar has not responded.

Don Carrington
News

Google Partner: Solar Power Dependability Zero

RALEIGH — Google announced in late November 2015 that it would participate in a new Duke Energy program allowing the Internet giant to buy power from a Rutherford County solar facility to run its new data center building located 50 miles away near Lenoir. Google did not mention in its press releases that the entire Caldwell County complex will continue to receive all of its power from Duke Energy, generated with the same general mix of fuels used by other Duke customers — dominated by nuclear, coal, natural gas, and hydro.

Don Carrington
News

Renewable Projects to Cost Taxpayers Nearly $1 Billion

RALEIGH — The final batch of solar and other renewable energy projects requested under the “safe harbor” law enacted in April by the General Assembly could cost North Carolina taxpayers as much as $937,804,785 in credits, according to aggregated figures released Wednesday by the North Carolina Department of Revenue.

Don Carrington
News

Analysts Call Apple Renewable Energy Claims ‘Lies’

RALEIGH — California-based Apple promotes its 500,000-square-foot data center in Maiden, N.C., by saying it runs “100 percent” on renewable energy even though the facility continues to get all of its electricity from Duke Energy, a public utility that primarily generates electricity using coal, nuclear power, and natural gas.

Don Carrington

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FTC: Green Misrepresentations A Problem

RALEIGH — Amazon’s statement that its wind farm in northeastern North Carolina will provide electricity for data centers located near Washington Dulles International Airport, nearly 200 miles away, could be a problem for the federal regulators that police corporate advertising and promotion. The Federal Trade Commission has issued guidelines for “green claims” since 1992, and deceptive statements could result in legal action by the agency.

Don Carrington
News

Amazon’s Wind Farm Links Nonexistent

RALEIGH — When Amazon Web Services, a division of online retailer Amazon, announced in July its involvement in North Carolina’s first major wind farm, the company stated the power would be used for its data centers in Northern Virginia, but the centers will continue to purchase electricity entirely from Dominion Virginia Power, the public utility that currently supplies the Amazon data centers.

Don Carrington
News

State To Continue Fight Against Alcoa

RALEIGH — Even though Alcoa Power Generating Inc. has won two more legal battles against the state of North Carolina dealing with the company’s efforts to relicense its four hydroelectric dams on the Yadkin River, the state plans to continue fighting to gain control of those facilities, says a spokesman for one of the agencies involved in the legal battle.

Don Carrington
News

Federal Probe Urged Of U.S. Attorney’s Office

RALEIGH — Citing reporting from Carolina Journal, the National Association of Assistant U.S. Attorneys has asked U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch to launch a formal investigation into the handling by the U.S. Attorney’s office in Raleigh of the prosecution of gang leader and contract killer Reynaldo Calderon. NAAUSA President Steven Cook told CJ, "We had a legal and ethical obligation to report this."

Rick Henderson
News

Wind Farm Project Could Disrupt Radar

RALEIGH — Despite initial concerns by the U.S. Navy that a massive wind farm near Elizabeth City will disrupt a sophisticated radar station located near the Virginia-North Carolina border, the $400 million project will proceed. The radar system provides critical surveillance capability to support the Southern Command’s program to detect and monitor drug-smuggling aircraft and ships from Central and South America.

Don Carrington
News

Gang Leader Sought Prosecutor’s Murder

RALEIGH — Federal prosecutor Denise Walker, who was forced into hiding for six weeks as a result of a drug dealer’s threats to have her killed, later resigned when her superiors in the U.S. Attorney’s office in Raleigh proposed a lesser sentence for the drug dealer and blocked any mention of his murderous intentions in a pre-sentencing report. The drug dealer lived in rural Duplin County.

Don Carrington