Duke Energy pays coal ash penalty
The country’s largest electricity company will pay an $84,000 penalty and work to stop potentially toxic waste from three North Carolina coal-burning power plants from leaking into groundwater and nearby rivers under a deal with state regulators announced Tuesday.
The deal, already signed by a Duke Energy Corp. executive, includes the penalty for nearly two dozen leaky spots detected at coal ash pits at the Rogers, Allen and Marshall power plants before 2015. The agreement acknowledges the leaks from unlined, earthen holding basins at the power plants into the adjoining Catawba and Broad rivers, a violation of pollution laws.
Coal ash is the residue left after decades of burning coal to generate power. It can contain toxic materials such as arsenic and chromium.
“In terms of a Duke vice president signing on the line and acknowledging that this is happening, and acknowledging that the company has an obligation to stop the pollution, this is a first,” said D.J. Gerken, an attorney for the Southern Environmental Law Center, a frequent adversary of Duke Energy.
Slack goes down for office chats
Twitter jokers had a field day Tuesday with a widespread outage suffered by the work-focused messaging service Slack.
Used by cubicle-dwellers and remote workers around the world to chat with co-workers, Slack was briefly out for many users.
Tristan Cooper, an editor at Dorkly.com, tweeted “how am i going to communicate with someone five feet from me without making eye contact.”
But the outage may have actually increased productivity. When you don’t have 20 co-workers messaging you, you might actually get some work done. That, or go home.
Barring that, reporter Will Ganss tweeted, “it’s time to resurrect AOL Instant Messenger. You can reach fifth-grade me at PopularStar5.”
Slack said it had “connectivity issues” but gave no further details.
SpaceX defends rocket launch
SpaceX defended its rocket performance during the weekend launch of a secret U.S. satellite, responding Tuesday to media reports that the satellite codenamed Zuma was lost.
Company President Gwynne Shotwell said the Falcon 9 rocket “did everything correctly” Sunday night and suggestions otherwise are “categorically false.”
Northrop Grumman – which provided the satellite for an undisclosed U.S. government entity – said it cannot comment on classified missions. The company chose SpaceX as the launch provider, noting late last year that it took “great care to ensure the most affordable and lowest risk scenario for Zuma.” The name refers to a Malibu beach in Southern California.
This was SpaceX’s third classified mission for the U.S. government, a lucrative customer. It was so shrouded in secrecy that the sponsoring government agency was not even identified, as is usually the case.
The Falcon’s first stage completed its job, lifting the rocket off the pad and toward space, then separated and landed back at Cape Canaveral. But second-stage information was kept to a minimum because of all the secrecy surrounding the flight. The rocket’s second stage propels the satellite into orbit.
Mexican inflation rises to 6.77 percent
Mexico recorded 6.77 percent annual inflation in 2017, the country said Tuesday, more than double its 3 percent target and a 17-year high.
The government’s National Institute of Statistics and Geography published the widely expected figure, also saying consumer prices rose 0.59 percent in December.
“The inflation rebound is the direct consequence of unleashed lagged prices and the expansionary effects of prolonged fiscal and monetary policies in the previous few years,” said Alfredo Coutino, Latin America director at Moody’s Analytics.
He added in a report that inflation is “not out of control” in Mexico but nevertheless “imposes a serious challenge to monetary policymaking for the year.”
Coutino predicted consumer price increases will “adjust down” in 2018, a presidential election year, largely because of the high base of comparison established in 2017.