Environmental Group Sues Wisconsin State Agency

Last week, the Wisconsin Sierra Club sued the state’s Department of Natural Resources, saying that agency has failed to provide requested records on several state-owned coal plants. The Sierra Club is trying to ensure that the plants are in compliance with the federal Clean Air Act.
The group requested the records in October.
The plants in question [...]

Mountaintop Removal Mining Kills Fish

A biologist from Wake Forest University was scheduled to brief U.S. Senators today on yet another environmental problem caused by the practice of mountaintop removal coal mining: poisoned fish.
Dead and deformed fish in surrounding streams are a consequence of selenium pollution from mountaintop coal mining, which is causing permanent damage to the environment and [...]

Troubles for New Wisconsin Coal-Fired Plant

Late last month, an enormous new coal plant in Wisconsin began producing electricity – enough to power a million homes.
The We Energies Oak Creek plant, a $2.3-billion facility, was approved years go, when the state’s electricity demand was much higher. Now its power is no longer needed, even according to state regulators.
The plant was originally [...]

Largest Utility in Kansas Will Pay $500 Million for Clean Air Violations

Westar Energy has settled an air pollution lawsuit brought by the federal government; the company will spend at least $500 million on equipment to reduce emissions at the Jeffrey Energy Center, a coal-fired power plant near St. Marys, Kansas.
The violations came to light after an information request was submitted to Westar. The government followed up [...]

Last Night’s Coal Debate

Robert Kennedy Jr. came out swinging in last night’s much-anticipated debate over coal, saying that coal companies were “liquidating the state for cash.”
Massey Energy CEO Don Blankenship responded with the claim that his industry offers badly needed jobs, provides cheap electricity and supports the communities in which they operate.
There was little common ground for the [...]

Appalachian Coal Production Will Continue to Decline

Coal production in Central Appalachia will fall nearly 50 percent in the next 10 years, according to an environmental consulting firm.
The report from Downstream Strategies, which says its work was not funded by any group, blames the decline on competition from other coal-producing regions, depletion of the most easily accessible coal reserves and new environmental [...]

Massey Energy Threatened with Lawsuit

Environmental groups are threatening to sue coal giant Massey Energy, which operates coal mines in Kentucky, Virginia and West Virginia.
Groups including the Sierra Club, Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition, Coal River Mountain Watch and the West Virginia Highlands Conservancy say Massey has committed 12,000 violations of pollution laws. They say those violations are detailed in [...]

Trouble for Arizona Coal Mine

A victory for environmental groups and a defeat for Peabody Western Coal Company’s Black Mesa Coal Complex came down today when a judge for the U.S. Department of the Interior vacated a permit for the Arizona coal-mining complex.
The permit had been issued by Interior’s Office of Surface Mining (OSM) in December 2008, during the final [...]

Environmental Groups File Federal Lawsuit Over Alaskan Coal Pile

A 90,000-ton pile of coal is polluting Seward, Alaska according to a suit brought by two environmental groups. The coal is intended to be loaded onto ships for export to South America and Asia.
The lawsuit alleges that Alaska Railroad and Aurora Energy Services are violating the federal Clean Water Act by allowing [...]

Florida Coal Plant Gets Cancelled

Seminole Electric Cooperative, the third largest power generator in Florida, will not go through with a 750 MW coal-fired power plant it planned to build 50 miles south of Jacksonville. Two 650-MW coal-fired generating units are already on the site.
Long-term regulations and prices for pollution emissions were the reasons given.
That news caps off a [...]

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