Smokestack

A recent New York Times article dredged up a controversy that's been going on in Wyoming since this spring. The issue at hand is whether the University of Wyoming caved to pressure from politicians and coal companies when it removed a piece of public art from its campus a year ahead of schedule.

Several days of lectures and discussions about sustainability kick off this Thursday in Louisville.

First, there’s the Campus Community Partnerships for Sustainability Conference. It’s co-hosted by Jefferson Community and Technical College and the University of Louisville, and features two days of events. Then, beginning Friday, Bluegrass Bioneers is coming back to town.

The University of Michigan awarded the prestigous Wallenberg Medal to mountaintop removal activist Maria Gunnoe earlier this week.

Gunnoe lives in Boone County, W.Va., and has spent the past eight years campaigning against mountaintop removal and its environmental effects in Appalachia. Gunnoe was also the 2009  Goldman Prize honoree from North America.

There are lots of factors playing into declining coal production in Central Appalachia: low natural gas prices, high stockpiles of coal after a warm winter and new environmental regulations.

Coal exports are expected to exceed record levels this year, according to the Energy Information Administration.

By the end of the year, the country is expected to have exported 125-133 million tons of coal—which shatters the previous record of 113 million tons set in 1981. This is largely due to a very strong first six months of the year, and the EIA notes that since then, the global demand for American coal has been slightly waning.

Congressman Brett Guthrie is in Clermont today to officially recognize Bernheim Arboretum and Research Forest as one of "America's Prettiest Parks" with a Congressional Record honor.

Bernheim was included in a Yahoo! Travel post in August that picked eight parks around the country as the nation's prettiest. Here's what they said about Bernheim:

The first shipment in a huge deal to export coal to India hasn’t yet left Appalachia.

Mitch McConnell isn't up for reelection until 2014, but the Kentucky senator is already raking in donations from energy-related PACs.

Louisville’s Downtown Development Corporation has won a grant to pursue LEED designation for the city’s East Market—or NuLu—neighborhood.

LEED stands for “Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design,” and the certification is usually given to buildings that incorporate various energy efficient and sustainable features. But there’s also a LEED neighborhood designation, and now the DDC has   $25,000 to pursue it.