Posts Tagged ‘Coal’
A Clean(er) World
By Molly Moore No country is an energy island. In the face of a European Union sanction that bans steel imports, Iran is using roundabout trading methods to secure metallurgical coal, used in steel manufacturing, from Ukraine. A state-backed firm in Abu Dhabi plans to invest in Saudi Arabia’s growing renewable energy efforts. And in…
Read MoreThe Export Enigma: Appalachian Coal’s Complicated Outlets Overseas
By Brian Sewell Recently, coal exports have provided operators in Appalachia with a crucial buffer against the market-driven forces that are shaping the energy landscape across the United States. According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, between 2009 and 2011, coal exports nearly doubled in response to stagnant domestic consumption. This year, the EIA forecasts…
Read MoreCoal Industry Employment Remains in Flux and other shorts
On Nov. 27, Southern Coal announced it would recall 650 laid-off miners after entering into a multi-year contract with American Electric Power. The deal will allow Southern Coal to reopen mines that were closed earlier this year and will prevent the layoffs of another 500 workers. Much of the complaints about a political “war on…
Read MoreLincoln and Climate Science
By Dr. Bill Kovarik Abraham Lincoln used to tell a story during the darkest days of the Civil War. Although the story was omitted from a recent movie about Lincoln, it is still worth recalling. It goes like this: When Lincoln was a young man in Illinois in 1833, he was roused from his bed…
Read MoreHow the Rest of the World Needs to Help Educate the U.S.
By Rev. Pat Watkins Several years ago, volunteers from a United Methodist Church traveled to a small village in Kenya where they observed that the women of the village were walking, twice a day with buckets on their heads, to a river a mile away to get water for their families. Deciding this village could…
Read MoreOther Shorts
House Sides with Coal, Passes a Non-starter On Sept. 21, in its last act before the election, the Republican-led House of Representatives passed H.R. 3409, a package of five bills it calls the “Stop the War on Coal Act,” claiming that environmental regulations are the real enemy of economic prosperity. Each of the bills would,…
Read MoreA Finite Frontier: Facing the Future of Central Appalachian Coal
By Brian Sewell On Sept.18, Appalachian coal mining giant Alpha Natural Resources announced it would idle eight mines and lay off 400 employees in the first phase of a “strategic repositioning” plan designed to meet the evolving demands of a changing global coal market. According to Alpha, the plan aims to enhance the company’s position…
Read MoreClimate in the Classroom
Scientists and science educators overwhelmingly agree that climate change is real and that part of science education is informing students about that reality. Appalachian educators are up to the challenge.
Read MoreODEC Puts Coal Plant on Ice
Wise Energy for Virginia For Immediate Release – August 9, 2012 ODEC Puts Plans for Coal Plant On Ice Clean energy groups rejoice but vow to stay vigilant ——————————————————————- Contact: Mike McCoy, Appalachian Voices (434) 293-6373 Beth Kemler, Chesapeake Climate Action Network (804) 335-0915 Glen Besa, Sierra Club Virginia Chapter (804) 387-6001 Cale Jaffe, Southern…
Read MoreBuried Blackwater: Revealing Coal’s Dirty Secret
By Brian Sewell No one knows exactly when the industry began injecting coal slurry, the toxic, semi-solid waste that remains after mined coal is washed, into networks of abandoned mine shafts throughout Appalachia. But it was sometime after a disaster on a cold morning in 1972, when 132 million gallons of blackwater erupted from a…
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