Environment

A Circuit Court judge has signed the settlement that a coal company, the commonwealth and environmental groups agreed to last week.

Louisville Gas and Electric and Kentucky Utilities are terminating the company’s contract with coal producer Consol Energy.

This news in and of itself isn’t huge—to put it in perspective, LG&E/KU burns 16 million tons of coal a year, and the company’s contract with Consol was only for 500,000 tons. But it was a good excuse to take a look at how the utility uses coal, and how its usage might change in the future.

Coal's role in this year's presidential election isn't going ignored by national media. Marketplace Morning Report had an interesting story this morning by Adriene Hill about the fuel's prominent role in President Obama and Mitt Romney's Ohio campaign strategies...even though there are less than 3,000 coal miners in the state. As the industry is always quick to point out, that doesn't include jobs that are related to and reliant on the coal industry.

A bicyclist was hit by a car this morning on Bardstown Road, only days before the road is scheduled to be shut down for a few hours to encourage walking and cycling.

The 36th Governor’s Conference on Energy and the Environment continues today in Louisville. I was there yesterday, as a participant in a panel loosely structured around a conversation on Kentucky’s energy future, and coal’s role in that mix.