Feds Charge Duke Energy With Violations Of Clean Water Act For Coal Ash Pollution:
AGAIN
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — Federal prosecutors filed multiple criminal charges against Duke Energy on Friday. Over the years they continually polluted river, streams and underground wells with material leaking from coal ash dumps at five North Carolina power plants.
The power of big buck. In the last couple of years the federal government has fined Duke Power Company, the biggest power company in the USA, Canada and Latin America, a whopping 102 million dollars for violations they have ignored for years. Peanuts to them.
It is reported that the Charlotte based company is worth in the neighborhood of 50 billion dollars. By them paying a 102 million dollar fine is like someone losing a quarter; they didn’t even notice.
In this particular situation Duke has been charged with nine misdemeanor counts involving violations of the Clean Water Act. They thumbed their nose at the government and elected to pay the fines instead of correcting the problems that are presenting health hazards for all of the people living in the areas surrounding their multiple plants.
In an interview I watched last night on 60 Minutes, the president of the company Lynn J Good (appropriately named) was put on the hot seat by Lesley Stahl and had an answer for every question but never really said anything.
Lesley asked her a multitude of questions but all of her answers were very vague or noncommittal. Good is very good at what she does and well-rehearsed, bamboozling the media. She may have been a politician or worked for the tobacco industry in her first life.
To make a very long story short; according to Ms. Good, the company is in the process of reviewing and studying the situation; only problem being, they have been using that same excuse for 20 plus years and doing nothing about the problem.
What kind of backbone does our government have that they refuse to shut the doors on the power company until they resolve the problem. It is all a matter of the almighty dollar controlling the situation. There is only one thing that the big boys understand; hurting them in their back pocket.
I would be willing to bet that there are not any relatives of the people overseeing this disaster that are living in proximity to the plants that are polluting the underground well water. We know how that works; no relatives on the front lines.
Can there be a multitude of envelopes being passed around to keep this dilemma stagnant so long. What other answer can there be?
Shit slides downhill and the little guys are always on the bottom.
One of the things that surprises me about the American people; they are like lost little puppies that go along with everything that comes down the pike. In Europe when the government gets out of whack, the citizens united and hold demonstrations that shut down the country for a few days to give them a wake up call.
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