Thursday, November 16, 2017

Duke Energy edited scientific reports on coal ash

Duke Energy hired two University of North Carolina-Charlotte professors to prepare supposedly independent scientific reports about the impact of coal ash ponds on groundwater, then edited some of those reports before releasing them, according to emails and documents obtained by WBTV in Charlotte.

"Environmental attorneys who reviewed the documents obtained by WBTV said the correspondence shows [Dr. John Daniels and Dr. Bill Langley] preparing scientific reports at the direction of Duke company officials," Nick Ochsner reports. "The thousands of emails, draft reports and other documents obtained by WBTV cast doubt on the company’s claims that Langley and Daniels performed independent scientific work."

The documents also show that Daniels chaired what was meant to be an independent advisory board that Duke Energy was required to charter as a condition of its probation, which stemmed from a guilty plea in a federal criminal case.

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