The Trump administration’s Affordable Clean Energy Plan would help the declining coal industry, but a study shows many coal workers could transition to a new industry – solar – and earn more money.
Coal miner photographed on the job near Richlands, Virginia, in 1974.
Jack Corn/Environmental Protection Agency
A recent study found the largest cluster of advanced black lung disease ever recorded among coal miners in central Appalachia. Two doctors who treat black lung patients explain how miners contract it.
Adani faces court over allegations of concealing the amount of coal water released in Caley Valley Wetlands last year.
Ian Sutton/flickr
The legacy of the dirtiest of fuels – coal – has the potential to deliver a low carbon energy future.
TVA Kingston Fossil Plant in Tennessee, site of a 1.1 billion gallon spill of coal ash slurry in 2008, photographed on March 28, 2012.
Appalachian Voices
Rural development experts say the best way to help coal communities by is investing in people, infrastructure and a clean environment. Instead, President Trump’s budget cuts programs in these areas.
With some tweaks to the recipe, cement and concrete can be made kinder to the planet.
Postman Photos/Shutterstock.com
Cement has a huge greenhouse footprint, largely because the chemical process by which it is made releases carbon dioxide. But there are several different ways for cement to green up its act.
The Wollangambe River’s canyons are loved by adventurers.
Ben Green
The environmental regulator has stepped in to stop water pollution from an underground coal mine damaging a World Heritage River. Can the mine deliver improvements and will the river recover?
A man fishing from a dock in Fajardo, Puerto Rico.
AP Photo/Ricardo Arduengo
Trump’s executive order on climate will cede American leadership internationally and scores a political win. But reversing all Obama’s work will require big wins in court.
Trump promises to revive the coal industry in part by opening up mining on federal lands, yet economists found that increasing royalties on public land would lead to more mining elsewhere, including Northern Appalachia and the Illinois Basin.
AP Photo/Steve Helber
One of Trump’s first orders of business on energy will likely be to reopen federal lands to coal mining, which would be a bad deal for taxpayers and the environment.
Can coal be part of Australia’s efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions?
Coal image from www.shutterstock.com
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull’s proposed changes to Australia’s national environment act will significantly reduce judicial oversight on environmental decisions. Here’s why that matters.
Mine communications are complex, slow and unreliable. The solution to keeping miners safe, and rescuing them when disaster strikes, might just be in their hands already.
Indigenous activists confront Queensland politician Peter Wellington in 2015.
AAP Image/Dan Peled
How bad are things for U.S. coal? Very bad, but that’s very good for environment. Now the question is whether other countries will cut back on coal as well.