Dive Brief:

• North Carolina regulators on Friday said Duke Energy broke various environmental rules when coal ash spilled twice into the Dan River last month.
• Duke faces possible daily fines over the spills of at least 30,000 tons of coal ash, according to the North Carolina Department of Environmental and Natural Resources, (DENR) which has been accused of being lax over the Duke's coal ash ponds.
• Last year, after Gov. Pat McCrory took office, DENR officials were told they needed to focus on “customer service.”

Dive Insight:

Under Gov. McCrory, a former Duke employee, it appears that DENR's focus shifted away from protecting North Carolina's environmental resources towards making sure businesses, like Duke, got the permits they needed to run their operations. State officials seem to be backpedaling in the wake of the Duke ash spills.