Energy & Environment Archives - Ohio Valley ReSource

Nov 8

Energy & Environment

Portal 31: How A Closed Mine Opened New Prospects For One Coal Town

Devin Mefford is sitting in the squat metal buggy of a modified mantrip, the train-like shuttle coal miners use to travel underground. Mefford is dressed for work, in a hardhat and a navy shirt and pants with lime green reflective stripes. It’s a uniform his father and grandfather — both Kentucky coal miners — would […]

By Brittany Patterson

Nov 8

Energy & Environment

Portal 31: How A Closed Mine Opened New Prospects For One Coal Town

By Brittany Patterson

Nov 4

Energy & Environment

EPA Proposes Changes To Federal Coal Ash, Wastewater Rules

Federal environmental regulators released proposed changes to two rules related to the disposal of coal ash and wastewater from coal-fired power plants. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Monday announced its third round of changes to its 2015 rule regulating coal ash. Coal ash is one of the largest waste streams in the country and […]

By Brittany Patterson

Nov 4

Energy & Environment

EPA Proposes Changes To Federal Coal Ash, Wastewater Rules

Brittany Patterson

Nov 1

Energy & Environment

Murray Energy’s Bankruptcy Could Bring Collapse Of Coal Miners’ Pensions

The recent bankruptcy of Ohio Valley coal giant Murray Energy has renewed fears about the already shaky financial foundations of the pension plan that tens of thousands of miners and their families depend upon. The seismic collapse of yet another coal employer has lawmakers from the region renewing their push to fix the United Mine […]

By Becca Schimmel

Nov 1

Energy & Environment

Murray Energy’s Bankruptcy Could Bring Collapse Of Coal Miners’ Pensions

Becca Schimmel

Nov 1

Energy & Environment

Text Good River: Our reporters want to hear your Ohio River stories and concerns

Text “OHIO” to 859-208-2408 to share with our seven-newsroom collaborative. Ohio Valley ReSource is teaming up with six other news organizations to cover what might be the most under-appreciated water asset in the country: the Ohio River. The Ohio River provides drinking water for five million people, and it’s a thoroughfare of business, supporting jobs […]

By Alexandra Kanik

Nov 1

Energy & Environment

Text Good River: Our reporters want to hear your Ohio River stories and concerns

Alexandra Kanik

Oct 29

Energy & Environment

Ohio-Based Coal Giant Murray Energy Declares Bankruptcy

Murray Energy Corp., the largest underground coal mining company in America with a substantial footprint across the Ohio Valley, has filed for bankruptcy protection. “Although a bankruptcy filing is not an easy decision, it became necessary to access liquidity and best position Murray Energy and its affiliates for the future of our employees and customers […]

By Brittany Patterson

Oct 29

Energy & Environment

Ohio-Based Coal Giant Murray Energy Declares Bankruptcy

Brittany Patterson

Oct 28

Energy & Environment

Disastrous Disconnect: Coal, Climate And Catastrophe In Kentucky

This story is part of a series about the insufficient protections for vulnerable people as natural disasters worsen in a warming climate. The Center for Public Integrity and four partners – the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, High Country News, Ohio Valley ReSource and StateImpact Oklahoma – are contributing stories. REGINA, Ky. — Todd Bentley stepped onto his […]

By Rachel Leven and Zach Goldstein

Oct 28

Energy & Environment

Disastrous Disconnect: Coal, Climate And Catastrophe In Kentucky

Rachel Leven and Zach Goldstein

Oct 23

Energy & Environment

Advocacy Group Finds Trace Contamination In Many Regional Water Systems

Tap water delivered by more than 2,000 water systems across the Ohio Valley contain pollutants, many harmful to human health, even though they mostly meet federal drinking water standards. That’s according to a newly-updated database released by the Environmental Working Group, an advocacy organization. Millions of residents in Kentucky, Ohio and West Virginia are being […]

By Brittany Patterson

Oct 23

Energy & Environment

Advocacy Group Finds Trace Contamination In Many Regional Water Systems

Brittany Patterson

Oct 22

Energy & Environment

Murray Energy CEO Lashes Out At “Feckless” Federal Officials Over Coal Subsidy Plan

Coal executive Bob Murray clashed Monday with federal energy regulators at a Lexington, Kentucky, energy forum over what Murray called a failure by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to sufficiently support the struggling coal industry. “The word that I’ve been using to describe FERC is feckless,” Murray told the audience, including FERC Chairman Neil Chatterjee. […]

By Sydney Boles

Oct 22

Energy & Environment

Murray Energy CEO Lashes Out At “Feckless” Federal Officials Over Coal Subsidy Plan

Sydney Boles

Oct 13

Energy & Environment

New Kentucky Memorial Honors Miners Who Died Of Black Lung

Coal miners and family members of miners who have died from black lung disease gathered Sunday in Whitesburg, Kentucky, to dedicate a new memorial to miners who perished from the workplace disease. While Appalachian coal country has several memorials to mining disasters, this is believed to be the first memorial to remember the thousands of […]

By Sydney Boles

Oct 13

Energy & Environment

New Kentucky Memorial Honors Miners Who Died Of Black Lung

Sydney Boles

Oct 4

Energy & Environment

Rethinking Retraining: Why Worker Training Programs Alone Won’t Save Coal Country

Bobby Bowman mined coal in West Virginia for 12 years before his employer shut down. “I don’t think that mine will ever open again,” he said. Bowman lives in Welch, in the south of the state, where he worked at the Pinnacle Mine, which shut down almost exactly one year ago, putting him and about […]

By Becca Schimmel

Oct 4

Energy & Environment

Rethinking Retraining: Why Worker Training Programs Alone Won’t Save Coal Country

Becca Schimmel