China drought raises coal prices, lowers hydropower

By Chua Baizhen, Editors: Raj Rajendran, Alex Devine, Bloomberg News March 29 (Bloomberg) — Benchmark coal prices at Qinhuangdao, China’s largest port handling the fuel, rose for the first time in 10 weeks after a drought in the south cut hydropower generation and raised demand from coal-fired plants. Prices for coal with an energy value […]

Life in the shadow of coal central

By NICK O’MALLEY INVESTIGATIONSMarch 19, 2010 THE massive expansion of the mining industry in the Upper Hunter Valley is making people sick, say concerned residents who have campaigned for a decade for the government to establish independent air-quality monitoring and to conduct a proper health study. One resident, Di Gee, from Jerrys Plains, worries that […]

EPA report: Streams near mining toxic

By Ken Ward Jr., Staff writerMarch 15, 2010 CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Water quality downstream from surface coal-mining operations in West Virginia and Kentucky greatly exceeds recommended toxicity limits, according to previously unreleased sampling data from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. EPA scientists found toxicity levels as high as 50 times the federal guidelines in water […]

Most coal-fired power plants still spewing toxic mercury

By Renee Schoof | McClatchy Newspapers WASHINGTON — Many of America’s coal-fired power plants lack widely available pollution controls for the highly toxic metal mercury, and mercury emissions recently increased at more than half of the country’s 50 largest mercury-emitting power plants, according to a report Wednesday. The nonpartisan Environmental Integrity Project reported that five […]

Impossible to clean all of Tennessee coal ash spill

By Scott BarkerPosted March 14, 2010 at midnight Federal regulators say it’s technologically impossible to remove all the coal ash from the Emory River and an undetermined amount will remain after the cleanup of the Kingston ash spill is complete. According to a memorandum written by Leo Francendese, who oversees the emergency cleanup operation for […]

Developed countries outsource hundreds of megatons of carbon emissions

Last Updated: Monday, March 8, 2010 | 3:03 PM ET CBC News Developed countries are “outsourcing” more than a third of their carbon emissions associated with products and services to other countries, researchers say. A study of trade data found that some countries in Western Europe have more than half of their total carbon dioxide […]

Disposal of spilled coal ash a long, winding trip

By BILL POOVEY Associated Press WriterMarch 5, 2010, 8:34PM CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. — More than a year after a Tennessee coal ash spill created one of the worst environmental disasters of its kind in U.S. history, the problem is seeping into several other states. It began Dec. 22, 2008, when a retaining pond burst at a […]

Eating Appalachia: NASA satellite images reveal mountain cannibalism for coal

1984   1988 www.mongabay.comMarch 02, 2010 Eating a mountain for coal New images released by NASA reveal the conversion of mountains and forests in southern West Virginia to a giant surface mine. The time-lapse shots from 1984 to 2009 show the process of mountaintop removal in Boone County, West Virginia. The images show forests being […]

New data paint a more toxic picture of TVA coal ash spill, dredging cleanup works estimated at $1 billion

The disastrous coal ash spill that occurred a year ago at the Tennessee Valley Authority’s Kingston power plant in eastern Tennessee dumped a whopping 2.66 million pounds of 10 toxic pollutants into the nearby Emory and Clinch rivers — more than all the surface-water discharges from all U.S. power plants in 2007. That’s one of […]

Planned Australia coal mine threatens wetland conservation area

By BEN CUBBYFebruary 18, 2010 EIGHT swamps inside a conservation area which provide habitat for endangered native animals are likely to be lost if BHP Billiton is allowed to go ahead with plans to develop giant coalmines on Sydney’s south-western outskirts. The company has conceded that the swamps – natural filters that keep the Georges […]

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