To the Editor:

The old cliché of follow the money continues to be true, and now it’s close to home. Let’s connect the dots.

• Pat McCrory elected governor of North Carolina in 2012.

• McCrory was an employee of Duke Energy for 28 years.

• Duke Energy executives, families of executives, and political action committee contributed $1.1 million to McCrory’s campaign for governor.

• Environmental groups sue Duke three times to get coal ash dumps owned by the power company cleaned up, through the Federal Clean Water Act.

• N.C. Department of Environment and Natural Resources steps in to head off the lawsuits, claiming that it will handle the problem, and levies small fines on Duke Energy.

• Amy Adams, regional director of the agency, resigns, stating, “Under the new administration, North Carolina has changed the definition of who its customer is from the public and the natural resources it protects to the industry it regulates.”

• Coal ash pond owned by Duke Energy erupts, dumping 82,000 tons of coal ash — enough to fill 73 Olympic sized swimming pools — into the Dan River. 

• Tests of the river water show elevated levels of heavy metals in the water — and arsenic. 

• Turns out that none of this is new to Duke Energy; it has a history 14 groundwater and wastewater violations at ash ponds. 

 So, Pat, you worked with a lobbying law firm. Is your role in this misfeasance, malfeasance, or nonfeasance?

Rick Bryson

Bryson City