Michelle Alfini

1 week ago | yahoo.com | Michelle Alfini

Hundreds of thousands of people were without power for weeks, and some even had to wait months after Hurricane Helene tore through North Carolina. That’s because Duke Energy workers had to deal with more than just downed power lines. Substations were wiped out with the high flood waters -- one substation in Asheville was destroyed and had to be rebuilt. Dozens of power poles were snapped by trees, and debris had to be cleared out before utility workers could get to them.

1 week ago | yahoo.com | Michelle Alfini

With growing demand for carbon-free, around-the-clock energy, more and more utilities, politicians and developers are looking toward nuclear power as a potential solution. The trouble is, for decades, U.S. nuclear development has been rare, slow and exceedingly expensiveAnd the list of failed projects greatly outnumbers the completed nuclear reactors in the past 30 years. In South Carolina, Virgil C. Summer is the most recent and dramatic of such failures.

1 week ago | yahoo.com | Michelle Alfini

For Mecklenburg County homeowners, nonprofits and businesses looking to install solar panels, local leaders hope a new program helps save money. Next month, the Solarize Charlotte-Mecklenburg campaign is set to launch. The program aims to lower the cost of installing solar through large-group purchasing. As Charlotte’s Chief Sustainability Officer Heather Bolick explains, the more homes, nonprofits and businesses participate, the order gets bigger and the cost per panel decreases.

3 weeks ago | yahoo.com | Michelle Alfini

As western North Carolina continues to recover from Hurricane Helene, Duke University is focused on the lingering health risks disasters like it can leave behind. In February, a group of researchers from the school of medicine traveled to Black Mountain to see what kind of mold or other fungi floodwaters may have brought into homes and buildings.

3 weeks ago | yahoo.com | Michelle Alfini

The EPA announced planned on Wednesday to roll back some of the federal drinking water standards set last year to address forever chemicals, known as PFAs.The man-made chemicals, which can be found in waterproof clothing, nonstick pans and firefighting foam, do not break down in the environment or our bodies and have been linked to adverse health effects, including cancer.