The Energy Report
Energy Burden Affects Low-Income and Minority Families and other news briefs
More environmental news from across the region including the impact of energy bills on low-income and minority families, regulation of coal ash cleanup and methane emissions.
Read MoreClean Power Plan Court Case Delayed Until September
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit has postponed hearing challenges to the federal Clean Power Plan until September. This plan by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is designed to reduce carbon emissions from power plants.
Read MoreFracking Wastewaters Linked to Contamination
Studies from the U.S. Geological Survey and Duke University find West Virginia waterways have been contaminated by wastewater from natural gas fracking.
Read MoreVirginia Utility Submits Plan for the Future
Environmental groups are challenging Dominion Virginia Power’s proposed plan to construct a new nuclear facility as part of its alternative energy initiative.
Read MoreN.C. Coal Ash Cleanup Plans Proposed, Controversy Continues
The N.C. Department of Environmental Quality released its rankings for Duke Energy’s coal ash impoundments on May 18. However, enforcement of regulations and clean-up is still largely up in the air.
Read MoreStates Consider Cuts to Mine Safety, Coal Taxes
Legislation in Kentucky, West Virginia and Virginia related to mine safety laws and coal taxation policies is showing how far Appalachian lawmakers will go in attempts to sustain the ailing industry.
Read MoreBankrupt Coal Companies Dodge Liabilities and Distribute Bonuses
Three major U.S. coal companies have filed bankruptcy and are grappling with their liabilities to restore sites after mining and their obligations to employees, past and present.
Read MoreControversy Shrouds Coal Ash Cleanup
In March, the N.C. Dept. of Environmental Quality held hearings across the state to solicit stakeholder comments on the cleanup plans for North Carolina’s 33 Duke Energy coal ash impoundments. The state also lifted do-not-drink warnings from households with contaminated wells near coal ash ponds.
Read MoreDon Blankenship Sentenced and other news briefs
A former CEO of a coal mining company receives a historic criminal sentence, Atlantic Ocean spared from drilling, new study shows West Virginia is flatter due to mountaintop removal coal mining and other energy briefs.
Read MoreCoal Export Market Evaporates
In 2011, the nation’s three largest coal companies bet billions of dollars on future Chinese demand for steelmaking metallurgical coal, a primarily from Appalachia. When Chinese demand fell, so did the Appalachian coal export market.
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