September 10, 2012 at 02:44pm
On Saturday, Floyd County members Rick Handshoe and Beverly May hosted a group from Church of the Epiphany in Louisville. The group learned about mountaintop removal earlier this year when Father John Rausch spoke at their church and wanted not only to experience it firsthand but to hear stories of people living with the effects every day.
September 9, 2012
AlterNet
Few people in our country were so fearless in the face of political pressure, bankers, Big Coal backlash and even death threats; and fewer people had the inspiring impact of this determined mountaineer, Lerry Gabison, who had spent the last two decades crisscrossing the country, leading protests and beseeching power brokers to defend his Appalachian mountains from reckless strip mining operatio
September 6, 2012
WFPL-FM
July 17, 2012
National Public Radio
Republicans on the House Appropriations Committee – chaired by Kentucky Rep. Hal Rogers – have inserted into a broad appropriations bill language that would block funding for a Labor Department effort to reduce the occurrence of black lung, the disease that afflicts coal miners exposed to excessive mine dust.
September 4, 2012
WFPL FM News
Murray Energy Corporation has filed a lawsuit against coal reporter Ken Ward, Jr. and his employer, the Charleston Gazette newspaper. The company claims that a blog post written by Ward was libelous. The post was written about a recent visit by Governor Mitt Romney to an Ohio-based mine owned by Murray Energy.
August 29, 2012
Bloomberg
In recent years several coal companies have tried to increase their production of metallurgic coal used to make steel. As the price of steam coal used by power plants has decreased it was believed that meallurgic coal would continue to generate high proffits. About 50% of central Appalachian metallurgic coal is exported to eastern European countries to make steel.
August 30, 2012
Henderson Gleaner
United Mine Workers of America officials told thousands of retired coal miners in Western Kentucky that the bankruptcy of Patriot Coal Corp. threatens their health insurance and can be blamed on their former employer, Peabody Energy Corp.
August 29, 2012
WFPL FM News
When Peabody energy sold shares in a 1600 MW coal-burning power plant to towns and electric co-ops in the mid-west, communities were promised cheap power. Now the first bills are coming due. Residents of Paducah and Princeton in western Kentucky, along with 2.5 million other customers in nearby states, face higher than expected costs and economic risks.
August 30, 2012 at 01:35pm
Residents of many mid-west towns, including Princeton and Paducah in western Kentucky, are beginning to face the sticker-shock of paying for the new Prairie State project, a 1600 MW coal-burning power plant developed by Peabody Energy. The plant, which is close to completion, has been called “the last of its kind in this country” by the New York Times.
August 23, 2012
Hazard Herald
This editorial concludes: "if we wish to provide a future for our children and their children, now is the time to begin work to diversify our economy. This also isn’t a new notion, but it’s one that more people in positions of power should ascribe to."
