Energy & Environment Archives - Ohio Valley ReSource

Aug 13

Energy & Environment

Trump Visits Shell Plastics Facility, Touts Petrochemical Future For Ohio Valley

President Donald Trump Tuesday toured Shell Chemical’s soon-to-be completed ethane cracker complex in Monaca, Pennsylvania, to tout his administration’s commitment to expanding energy production. The facility is part of what industry boosters hope will be a new plastics and chemical manufacturing base in the upper Ohio Valley, but many residents here worry about the heat-trapping […]

By Brittany Patterson

Aug 13

Energy & Environment

Trump Visits Shell Plastics Facility, Touts Petrochemical Future For Ohio Valley

By Brittany Patterson

Aug 9

Energy & Environment

“Bloody Harlan” Revisited: Blackjewel Miners Draw On Labor History While Facing Uncertain Future

Curtis Cress sat in the gravel beside a railroad track in Harlan County, Kentucky. Tall and thin with a long, black beard, Cress is every bit a coal miner, or, he was until a month ago. “It’s part of my heritage, you know? My dad and papaws had always done it,” he said. “And I’m […]

By Sydney Boles

Aug 9

Energy & Environment

“Bloody Harlan” Revisited: Blackjewel Miners Draw On Labor History While Facing Uncertain Future

Sydney Boles

Aug 6

Energy & Environment

Protesting Blackjewel Miners To Get Some Overdue Pay From Bankruptcy Sale

More than a thousand coal miners left unpaid by the abrupt bankruptcy of Blackjewel mining could soon be getting some – but not all – of the money they are owed. Dozens of miners have staged a week-long protest on railroad tracks in Kentucky’s Harlan County, blocking delivery of a load of coal from a […]

By Brittany Patterson and Sydney Boles

Aug 6

Energy & Environment

Protesting Blackjewel Miners To Get Some Overdue Pay From Bankruptcy Sale

Brittany Patterson and Sydney Boles

Aug 5

Energy & Environment

Few Answers For Unpaid Miners After Day One of Blackjewel Sales Hearing

Blackjewel coal miners will have to wait at least another day to learn if the sale of the bankrupt coal company’s mines and equipment will deliver their overdue paychecks. The U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of West Virginia recessed Monday after an all-day hearing that yielded few results. The court is scheduled to […]

By Brittany Patterson and Sydney Boles

Aug 5

Energy & Environment

Few Answers For Unpaid Miners After Day One of Blackjewel Sales Hearing

Brittany Patterson and Sydney Boles

Aug 2

Energy & Environment

Mussel Woman: Biologist Passes Along Pearls Of Wisdom About Threatened Mussels

Janet Clayton is standing thigh-deep in a back channel of the Elk River. Clad in a wetsuit and knee pads, the silver-haired biologist with the West Virginia Division of Natural Resources reaches into a bright orange mesh bag submerged in water. Inside are a half dozen mussels she plucked from the rocky river bottom. “This […]

By Brittany Patterson

Aug 2

Energy & Environment

Mussel Woman: Biologist Passes Along Pearls Of Wisdom About Threatened Mussels

Brittany Patterson

Aug 2

Energy & Environment

Blackjewel Miners Continue Protest As Bankruptcy Hearing Looms

Miners left unpaid by the bankrupt Blackjewel coal company say they are prepared to keep up their protest on railroad tracks in Harlan County, Kentucky, where they are blocking delivery of a load of coal. As their protest grows and gains attention, a bankruptcy court hearing on Monday could determine whether and when the miners […]

By Brittany Patterson and Sydney Boles

Aug 2

Energy & Environment

Blackjewel Miners Continue Protest As Bankruptcy Hearing Looms

Brittany Patterson and Sydney Boles

Jul 30

Energy & Environment

Blackjewel Miners Block Railroad To Demand Pay From Bankrupt Coal Company

Some coal miners left without pay by the bankruptcy of coal company Blackjewel LLC are protesting by blocking a coal train in eastern Kentucky. The stand-off began early Monday when five miners blocked the train from leaving the Cumberland, Kentucky, plant. Despite police asking them to leave, miners spent the night blocking the railroad to […]

By Sydney Boles and Brittany Patterson

Jul 30

Energy & Environment

Blackjewel Miners Block Railroad To Demand Pay From Bankrupt Coal Company

Sydney Boles and Brittany Patterson

Jul 24

Energy & Environment

Power Plant: How A Grass Might Generate Fuel And Help Fix Damaged Mine Lands

Down bumpy back roads deep in central West Virginia, a flat, bright green pasture opens up among the rolling hills of coffee-colored trees. Wildflowers and butterflies dot the pasture, but West Virginia University Professor Jeff Skousen is here for something else that stands above the rest of the Appalachian scenery – literally. Thick stalks of […]

By Liam Niemeyer

Jul 24

Energy & Environment

Power Plant: How A Grass Might Generate Fuel And Help Fix Damaged Mine Lands

Liam Niemeyer

Jul 23

Energy & Environment

As Disabled Miners Hit D.C., Lawmakers Introduce Bills To Fund Black Lung Benefits

Democratic members of Congress introduced legislation Tuesday to provide additional funding for coal miners suffering from black lung. The bills came as a contingent of Appalachian miners afflicted with the disease lobbied lawmakers for more support. “It doesn’t only take your health. It takes your identity,” Barry Johnson said of the disease. Johnson is a […]

By Sydney Boles

Jul 23

Energy & Environment

As Disabled Miners Hit D.C., Lawmakers Introduce Bills To Fund Black Lung Benefits

Sydney Boles

Jul 19

Energy & Environment

Coal Miners To Hit Capitol Hill For Black Lung Funding

Dozens of Appalachian coal miners plan to visit Capitol Hill Tuesday to ask lawmakers to bolster funding for the black lung disability trust fund, which miners depend upon when no responsible company can be identified to pay for needed health care. The fund is already billions of dollars in debt, and that will likely grow […]

By Sydney Boles

Jul 19

Energy & Environment

Coal Miners To Hit Capitol Hill For Black Lung Funding

Sydney Boles