Coal mining
Mountaintop removal and some history
Documenting mountaintop removal
iLoveMountains.org is an invaluable resource if you care about the Appalachian mountains and what mountaintop removal is doing to them. The site is up with a new resource (with an interactive map) called "Communities at risk from mountaintop removal."
For years, it was . . .
Posted in: wv mining disasters
Fracking news update
stories not covered locally
Fracking companies going bankrupt
Bloomberg Business News is reporting that "Half of U.S. Fracking Companies Will Be Dead or Sold This Year."
Half of the 41 fracking companies operating in the U.S. will be dead or sold by year-end because of slashed spending by oil companies, an executive with Weatherford . . .
Posted in: fracking
Divorcing ourselves from reality
Renewable energy and the future of West Virginia
The McClatchy News Service published an article about the growth of jobs in the renewable energy sector on Wednesday. Here's the lede:
Far more jobs have been created in wind and solar in recent years than lost in the collapse of the coal industry, and renewable energy is poised for record growth in the United States this . . .
Posted in: alternative energycoal warsrenewables
"Same As It Ever Was" -- the Bob Murray Wheeling area service organization tour continues
Murray speaks to the St. Clairsville Rotary
The CEO of Murray Energy, Bob Murray, added yet another Wheeling area service club to his local speaking tour and once again a reporter for Ogden newspapers was there to cover it. From the description in the Intelligencer, yesterday's speech to the St. Clairsville Rotary was apparently very similar to the ones that he delivered to the . . .
Coal ash
The Intelligencer once again ignores its harms
This morning's Intelligencer editorial on coal ash tells us why we need local Representative David McKinley's proposal to limit the EPA's oversight of coal ash. The editorial gives the reader the impression that coal ash is just a harmless byproduct of the use of coal by electric plants. (Hey, it's "used in a variety of . . .
More "war on coal" perspectives
"The presence of the coal industry has kept these communities in a state of dependence, and not allowed them to develop a real economy beyond coal. Whether we pine for the days of these jobs or not, they’re not coming back. We have to get beyond this state of dependency." - - Richard Martin in "Coal Wars."
Two weeks ago I wrote about a new book, journalist Richard Martin's Coal Wars. Late last week, two additional articles used Martin's book as a starting place for a discussion of the "war on coal."
Tim McDonnell of Grist looked at Kentucky senator Mitch McConnell's attempt to change the inevitable future in . . .
Posted in: coal warsmitch mcconnellwar on coal
What have our senators been doing lately?
Democrat-in-name-only (DINO) Joe Manchin
Both of these votes have garnered very little notice from the media.
The Estate Tax
Three weeks ago I wrote about Manchin being the only Democrat to vote for an amendment that would have eliminated the Estate Tax. (See "Odds and Ends" April 3 at . . .
