I don’t want to get into the fray of demonizing coal-fired plants. They’re under a microscope, and they probably do more good than harm. There are side effects to everything, and everybody makes mistakes. Duke Energy’s major crime is the same as Walmart’s: They’re big, and they have a lot of money, not that they don’t have uses for their money. Anyhoo, the Department of Justice has ruled that in addition to remediating the coal ash spill in the Dan River and modifying dumping practices, Duke is on the hook for making swamps swampier. But we cannot call them swamps, as that is stigmatizing. The proper phrase is “wetlands communities.”
by Leslee Kulba
Wild West blogger