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North Carolina Coal Ash Oversight Commission Disbanded

The committee created to oversee the shutdown of Duke Energy's coal ash ponds has been disbanded. The abrupt closing comes at the same time public hearings are beginning to evaluate the risk coal ash poses to communities.

The North Carolina Coal Ash Management Commission was formed just months after an ash spill into the Dan River, amid public and legislative distrust of Duke Energy and state regulators.

The nine-member commission was intended to ensure the process of closing Duke's 32 ash ponds was done professionally.

The News and Observer reports that the committee's executive director, Natalie Birdwell, has been informed by Gov. Pat McCrory's office that the commission “was no longer a legal entity.”

The state's Department of Environmental Quality is holding public hearings this month on proposed risk classifications that will determine how and when ponds are closed.

The governor's office has not responded to requests for comment.

Neal Charnoff joined 88.5 WFDD as Morning Edition host in 2014. Raised in the Catskill region of upstate New York, he graduated from Sarah Lawrence College in 1983. Armed with a liberal arts degree, Neal was fully equipped to be a waiter. So he prolonged his arrested development bouncing around New York and L.A. until discovering that people enjoyed listening to his voice on the radio. After a few years doing overnight shifts at a local rock station, Neal spent most of his career at Vermont Public Radio. He began as host of a nightly jazz program, where he was proud to interview many of his idols, including Dave Brubeck and Sonny Rollins. Neal graduated to the news department, where he was the local host for NPR's All Things Considered for 14 years. In addition to news interviews and features, he originated and produced the Weekly Conversation On The Arts, as well as VPR Backstage, which profiled theater productions around the state. He contributed several stories to NPR, including coverage of a devastating ice storm. Neal now sees the value of that liberal arts degree, and approaches life with the knowledge that all subjects and all art forms are connected to each other. Neal and his wife Judy are enjoying exploring North Carolina and points south. They would both be happy to never experience a Vermont winter again.

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