Britain predicts severe power shortages

By James Chapman Britain faces the first widespread power blackouts since the 1970s because of looming energy shortages, Government documents reveal. For the first time, ministers are expecting that the supply of electricity will fail to meet demand at peak times. The Government is forecasting that by 2017 there will be power cuts of around […]

Mercury-tainted fish found widely in U.S. streams

By Steve Gorman LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Scientists have detected mercury contamination in every one of hundreds of fish sampled from 291 freshwater streams, according to a U.S. government study released on Wednesday. More than a quarter of those fish contained concentrations of mercury exceeding levels set by the Environmental Protection Agency for the protection […]

China incinerators spread mercury globally

By KEITH BRADSHER SHENZHEN, China — In this sprawling metropolis in southeastern China stand two hulking brown buildings erected by a private company, the Longgang trash incinerators. They can be smelled a mile away and pour out so much dark smoke and hazardous chemicals that hundreds of local residents recently staged an all-day sit-in, demanding […]

TVA raises coal ash spill cost to $1.2B, reports 3Q loss

By DUNCAN MANSFIELD (AP) KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — The Tennessee Valley Authority raised its estimates for cleaning up a massive coal ash spill to $1.2 billion on Friday, and partly blamed its third-quarter loss of $167 million on that cleanup. Officials also suggested a rate increase could be looming. The nation’s largest public utility said in […]

Illnesses emerge in Tennessee town after toxic coal ash spill

By Stephanie Smith, CNN Medical Producer HARRIMAN, Tennessee (CNN) — Pamela Hampton stands at the kitchen sink, her gaze trained out of the window of her family’s small hillside home. The disaster site is not visible from where she stands, but she knows it is there, down the hill, around a short stretch of highway, […]

Appalachia coal mining health costs in the tens of billions

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – The costs of illness and premature deaths in Appalachia related to coal mining far outweigh economic benefits the industry brings to the region, says Michael Hendryx, Ph.D., associate director of the West Virginia University Institute for Health Policy Research in WVU’s Department of Community Medicine. “The human cost of the Appalachian coal […]

Birth defects show human price of coal

By Phyllis Xu and Lucy Hornby GAOJIAGOU, China (Reuters) – Ten-year old Yilong is already a statistic. Born at the center of China’s coal industry, the boy is mentally handicapped and is unable to speak. He is one of many such children in Shanxi province, where coal has brought riches to a few, jobs for […]

Pollution in Chinese cities 'extremely severe': minister

Beijing (AFP) April 23, 2009 – Air pollution in China’s cities remains very serious, state media on Thursday quoted a minister as saying, amid an ongoing battle to clean up the skies in the world’s largest coal-consuming nation. … China is the world’s largest producer and consumer of coal and its appetite for the cheap […]

China aims to increase coal production 30 pct by 2015: govt

AFP – China is aiming to increase its coal production by about 30 percent by 2015 to meet its energy needs, the government has announced, in a move likely to fuel concerns over global warming. China aims to increase coal production 30 pct by 2015: govt (AFP) Thu, 08 Jan 2009 04:36:03 GMT Technorati Tags: […]

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