Civil rights groups in North Carolina are petitioning the U.S. EPA for review of a state approval of plans to produce “biogas” from industrial hog manure. The Southern Environmental Law Center, the Duplin County branch of the NAACP, and the North Carolina Poor People’s Campaign argue the projects would increase air and water pollution and would disproportionately harm predominantly Black and Latinx residents. The $500 billion joint venture of Smithfield and Dominion Energy would cover four facilities “in the low-lying, flood-prone coastal plain of eastern North Carolina,” the complaint says. The region is home to the highest concentration of industrial hog operations in the U.S. where massive lagoons of hog waste are vulnerable to hurricanes. (InsideClimate News)