This afternoon, a bankruptcy court issued a ruling that allows the Blackjewel coal company to immediately abandon cleanup obligations at 33 coal mines in Kentucky. An additional 171 Blackjewel permits in Kentucky, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia will be placed into a legal limbo to potentially make them available to new ownership. Any of those permits that do not transfer to new owners in the next six months will also be abandoned. Since Blackjewel failed to complete reclamation at these mines, and the regulators failed to require adequate reclamation bonds, these abandonments mean millions of dollars in outstanding costs may fall on taxpayers and local communities. This is a potentially precedent-setting ruling at a time when several coal mining companies are nearing bankruptcy amid declining demand for thermal coal.
Press Releases
Pontiac, Michigan -- Today, a coalition of environmental, conservation and community groups known collectively as the Oakland County Climate Campaign (also known by the slogan ‘turn Oakland County green’) applauded Oakland County Executive David Coulter and the Oakland County Commission for taking the first step toward fighting climate change by pledging to hire a chief sustainability officer, committing to develop a community-wide sustainability plan and a plan to conduct an energy audit of its own facilities and operations.
Atlanta, GA -- Yesterday, eight people were murdered and one injured at three spas in the greater Atlanta area. Six of those killed were Asian women. Last night’s mass shooting follows a disturbing increase in hate crimes against Asian Americans: Since the beginning of this pandemic, there have been nearly 3,800 reported incidents of anti-Asian hate across the United States.
WASHINGTON, DC – Yesterday, a Toyota representative testified before Congress that the automaker was skeptical of battery electric vehicles and touted its commitment to hybrid and plug-in hybrid vehicles, the latest in a long string of actions the automaker has taken to spread misinformation and slow down the transition to electric vehicles in the United States.
State regulators charged with looking out for the best interests of Indiana’s utility customers failed today in that duty by allowing Duke Energy Indiana to keep forcing Hoosiers to pay millions of dollars every month to run their coal-burning power plants, Edwardsport and Gibson, even when cheaper energy is available.
Mobile County, AL -- This month, the Alabama Department of Environmental Management (ADEM) is accepting public comments about Alabama Power’s plans to “cap-in-place” 21 million tons of coal ash at Plant Barry near Mobile. The deadline for public comment submissions is April 6 at 5 p.m. CST.
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Today, the Senate introduced the For The People Act, the landmark democracy reform package that is designed to create nationwide automatic and same day voter registration, strengthen ethics laws to curb the influence of corporate polluters, put an end to partisan gerrymandering, restore voting rights for 1.7 million formerly incarcerated people, and more.
Clean energy groups, in public comments submitted on March 13, are calling on the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) to halt its plans for a massive build-out of gas-fired power plants that are inconsistent with President Biden’s call for net zero emissions in the power sector by 2035.
El Senado confirmó hoy a Deb Haaland para liderar el Departamento del Interior. Haaland es la primera indígena en ser miembro del gabinete federal.