Whistleblower Gets His Day: A federal judge ordered a West Virginia coal company to allow Charles Scott Howard to return to his mining job and also pay a $30,000 fine for discriminating against a whistleblower. Cumberland River Coal Co. and…
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Bill Seeks Moratorium on Mountaintop Removal Permits | Black Lung Increasing in Appalachia
New Bill Seeks Moratorium on Mountaintop Removal Permits Representatives in Washington introduced a bill that would halt permitting for mountaintop removal coal mining until federal studies on health impacts can be conducted. Thirteen congressional representatives from nine states unveiled H.R.…
The Coalfields Expressway: 50-Mile Strip Mine Slated for Virginia
By Mike McCoy The Virginia Department of Transportation and Alpha Natural Resources are teaming up in a public-private partnership to create a 50-mile road and strip mine in Southwestern Virginia. Called the Coalfield Expressway, the road would run from Pound…
Coal’s Cloudy Future: The Factors in The Fossil Fuel’s Decline
By Brian Sewell A light winter that dented demand is the least of the coal industry’s worries in a year of unprecedented challenges that may point to a very frigid future. While the industry is familiar with market fluctuations and…
Coal Generated Electricity Drops To All-Time Low in First Quarter
By Jessica Kennedy Data released in early May show that coal’s current share of U.S. electricity generation is at an all-time low. According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration’s Short-Term Energy Outlook report, coal made up only 36 percent of…
TAGS: Coal coal electricity Energy Information Administration Mine Safety and Health Administration Natural Gas U.S. Energy Information Administration’s Short-Term Energy Outlook report
State Legislature Kills Mountaintop Removal Ban Through Delays
By Molly Moore The Scenic Vistas Protection Act, a bill to end mountaintop removal coal mining in Tennessee, was killed by a state House subcommittee after the bill was heard by the state’s Senate this March. The Tennessee hearing marked…
D.C. District Court Overrules EPA’s Spruce Mine No. 1 Permit Veto
By Brian Sewell On March 23, a District of Columbia District Court ruled in favor of Arch Coal and overturned a 2011 veto by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, restoring the permit of the Logan County, W.Va., Spruce No. 1…
EPA Buffaloed Over Surface Mine
A letter sent by the EPA to WVDEP in January expresses the agency’s concerns about CONSOL Energy’s 2,308-acre Buffalo Mountain surface mine. The EPA has suggested ways to reduce the negative impacts on the environment and water quality that the…
Alpha Pays $209 Million in Upper Big Branch Settlement
Alpha Natural Resources, the global coal company that purchased Massey Energy in January 2011, reached a settlement with victim’s families and the Mine Safety and Health Administration for $209 million in civil and criminal penalties for a mine explosion that…
Concerned Citizens Dispute Water Quality Study
The Whitesville, W.Va.-based Sludge Safety Project is claiming that a recent study of the water quality in an area of Boone County by the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection used flawed research methods, contains errors and misinterprets its own…
