Tagged: coal

For the first time since the federal government has begun collecting data, natural gas and coal produce virtually the same amount of the country’s electricity.

The Energy Information Administration just crunched its numbers for this past April, and preliminary data shows that both coal and natural gas make up about 32 percent of the country’s total electricity generation.

Jason Howard of the Kentucky Environmental Foundation had an Op-Ed in the New York Times yesterday on the ways in which coal--specifically, mountaintop removal coal mining--is dividing people and communities in Appalachia.

Howard chronicles coal industry advertising and the harassment of several coalfields environmental activists.

An investigation by NPR and several partners has found that black lung disease is far from being eradicated among coal miners. On the contrary: the reports outline a disease where diagnoses have doubled in the last decade in parts of Kentucky, West Virginia and Virginia.

Black lung disease--also called coalworkers' pneumoconiosis--is a disease caused by breathing large amounts of coal dust.

An editorial published yesterday in the Hazard Herald of Perry County lays out a cogent view of where the economy of Eastern Kentucky is headed, as the coal industry shrinks and utilities begin transitions to cheaper natural gas.  The editors of the Ha

An eastern Kentucky coal mining company has been ordered to pay $1.67 million after failing to respond to a lawsuit brought by the federal government.

U.S. District Judge Gregory Van Tatenhove issued the order today after D&C Mining Corp. of Harlan failed to answer allegations that it owed fines on 1,244 citations.