After more than five years of reporting from Carolina Journal, a “scandal involving allegations of political pressure, corruption,
campaign finance irregularities, government waste, and abuse of power
reaching to the highest levels of state government” has produced an indictment.
It’s reported that a former senior official at the N.C. Department of Environment and Natural Resources will admit to seeking a promise of $196,000 in return for expediting environmental permits for an ethanol plant.
The former official, Boyce Hudson, has some interesting ties, as Public Radio’s Laura Leslie notes. Hudson’s friends and colleagues have been tied up in controversies involving Natural Gas in Northeast North Carolina, the Northeast Partnership, and Randy Parton Theatre.
For a good early account of the controversies swirling around eastern North Carolina ethanol plants, see this Paul Chesser article from February 2003.
