Smokestack

EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson announced her plans to leave her post after President Obama's inauguration. During her time in the role, she drew fire from the coal industry and manufacturers for her work to increase scrutiny of mountaintop removal coal mining and tighten regulations on coal-fired power plants. But she also won support from environmental groups and occasionally grudging respect from her opponents.

Her successor is unknown, but reports are speculating it could be either Deputy Administrator Robert Perciasepe or Assistant Administrator for Air Gina McCarthy.

WASHINGTON — Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson says she's stepping down after nearly four years on the job.

Jackson announced her departure in a statement Thursday. She gave no particular reason for leaving but said she was ready for new challenges, time with her family and new opportunities to make a difference.

Jackson's tenure was marked by high-profile brawls with industry and congressional Republicans over such issues a global warming pollution, the Keystone XL oil pipeline and new controls on coal-fired plants.

A Louisville lawmaker says she plans to re-introduce a bill during the upcoming legislative session to institute a statewide energy portfolio standard.

This will be the third year Representative Mary Lou Marzian has introduced some version of the Clean Energy Opportunity Act. Last year, the bill would have offered incentives for in-state renewable energy production, and mandated that utilities get at least 12.5 percent of their energy from renewable sources by 2023.

There are lots of ways to dispose of your Christmas tree this year. If you leave it on your curb and live in the Urban Services District, Metro Government will pick it up. If you bring it to one of several different locations, you can watch it be recycled into mulch. Or, you can drive it to one of 20 drop-off locations around the state and donate your tree to be used for a fish habitat.

Yes, a fish habitat.

The Kentucky Division of Fish and Wildlife is collecting the used trees to deposit in lakes. Joseph Zimmerman is an environmental biologist with the division.

Thirteen Kentucky organizations will receive grant funding next year under a settlement between the Tennessee Valley Authority and the Environmental Protection Agency for alleged violations of the Clean Air Act.

The TVA settlement money is meant to go to environmental mitigation projects in the TVA service area.

The Kentucky Public Service Commission has accepted a settlement agreed to by all the parties in a rate increase case filed by Louisville Gas and Electric and Kentucky Utilities.

A coal-fired power plant in eastern Kentucky will be retired in the next several years.

Originally, American Electric Power subsidiary Kentucky Power planned to spend nearly a billion dollars to install pollution controls on the Big Sandy Power plant in Louisa so it could continue burning coal under upcoming federal pollution regulations.

An eastern Kentucky coal miner who reported unsafe work conditions is now facing sanctions by the state.

Mackie Bailey is a longtime roof bolting machine operator who worked at Manalapan Mining’s P-1 mine in Harlan County. For several weeks, Bailey says he and other miners had been working without a required safety device called the Automated Temporary Roof Support (ATRS), which is supposed to brace against the roof of the mine and protect miners from a potential roof collapse.

In the United States, recent data has shown that coal is losing ground, and is now neck in neck with natural gas in terms of the percentage of electricity generation the country gets from each fuel. Coal use is even diminishing in the southeast, a region that's typically relied on coal-fired power.

If you're an environmentally-conscious Christmas celebrator, this is the time of year when the question of the sustainability of the holiday season comes up. And for the centerpiece of the holiday--the Christmas tree--is it more environmentally-friendly to buy a real or an artificial one?