Pittsboro Residents Fight N.C. DOT, Chatham Park Investors Over a Road That Would Traverse Their Rural Neigborhood
Lisa Sorg/NC Policy Watch
Mark Pavao has lived in the rural North Woods neighborhood in Pittsboro for 24 years. The proposed Chatham North Parkway would cut through his land.
This story first published online at NC Policy Watch.Â
Mark Pavao was working in his home that is tucked inside a woods and perched above a creek when he heard chainsaws.Â
Contractors hired by the N.C. Department of Transportation had asked him if they could walk through part of his property in rural Pittsboro. He agreed to a stroll. He did not agree to what happened next.Â
A large poultry farm was proposed to be built on this 64-acre tract along Old US 421 near Goldston in Chatham County. However, that project is now in doubt because a USDA loan application that would have helped pay for the operation has been withdrawn. (File photo: Lisa Sorg)
A USDA loan application for a proposed chicken farm near Goldston in Chatham County has been withdrawn, raising questions of whether the enormous operation will be built.
Policy Watch learned of the withdrawal after asking the USDA for its final environmental assessment of the project.
That assessment was being prepared, but will not be completed now that the agency is not backing the loan.
Gov Cooper nominates Dionne Delli-Gatti, another EDF alum, to lead Department of Environmental Quality ncpolicywatch.org - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from ncpolicywatch.org Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
On Friday, the Southern Environmental Law Center, on behalf of Clean Air Carolina, challenged the air permit granted to Smithfield Foods and Dominion Energy that allows them to build a biogas facility in Sampson and Duplin counties.
Smithfield and Dominion received the air permit Jan. 6 from the N.C. Department of Environmental Quality for their renewable natural gas facility called Align RNG, a project that will convert hog waste into renewable gas. The law center is challenging the DEQ s decision saying the two companies refuse to provide key details about the project including a list of participating hog farms and potential environmental impacts, according to the press release.
Will new US EPA head continue his opposition to burning forests for energy?
by Justin Catanoso on 4 February 2021
Under President Donald Trump the U.S. made moves toward legally enshrining the burning of forest biomass to make energy on an industrial scale as a national policy. That same policy has been embraced by the United Kingdom and European Union, helping them move toward a target of zero carbon emissions at least on paper.
However, the carbon neutrality label given to the burning of woody biomass to make energy, first proclaimed under the Kyoto Protocol, then grandfathered into the Paris Climate Agreement, has been found by science over the last decade to be more accurately characterized as a risky carbon accounting loophole.