Big Coal

"Rape of the Appalachians" Turns 50: What Would Harry Caudill Do Today?

Jeff Biggers | Posted 05.31.2012

Read More: Dirty Coal, Big Coal, Harry Caudill, Rape of the Appalachians, Coal, US Mining, Harry Caudill Appalachians, Mining, Appalachians Moutaintop Remvoal, Mining the Appalachians, Moutaintop Removal, Strip Mining, Green News

Half a century later, the "rape of the Appalachians" is in full force, carried out through an admittedly failed regulatory process that refuses to abolish one of the most egregious mining practices in U.S. history.

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Mine Safety Chief On Upper Big Branch: 'We Could've Done Better'

HuffingtonPost.com | Dave Jamieson | Posted 03.27.2012

Read More: Msha, Dirty Coal, Video, Congress, Big Coal, Mining, West Virginia, Joseph-Main, West Virginia Mine Disaster, Coal, Upper Big Branch Mine, Upper Big Branch Mine Disaster, Politics News

WASHINGTON -- The head of the Mine Safety and Health Administration told lawmakers Tuesday on Capitol Hill that his agency wasn't responsible for the ...

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Lone Miner's Death Tells 'Story Of The Appalachian Coal Miner'

HuffingtonPost.com | Dave Jamieson | Posted 03.02.2012

Read More: Kentucky Miner, Richard Coots Miner, Mining Disaster, Richard Coots Kentucky, Owlco Mine, Owlco Energy, Workers, Owlco Safety, Owlco, Big Coal, Workplace Deaths, Owlco Energy Mine, Coal, Msha, Appalachia, Kentucky Mine, Labor, Mining, Richard Coots Owlco, Kentucky, Appalachian Mine, Richard Coots Jr, Mine Safety and Health Administration, Coal Mining, Richard Coots, Tony Oppegard, Green News

Richard Coots, Jr. wasn’t killed in a massive explosion, and the accident that claimed him barely made a ripple of news beyond Eastern Kentucky. He ...

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The Greedy Bastards Antidote to Rigged Energy

Brian Merchant | Posted 04.08.2012

Read More: Dirty Coal, Carbon Emissions, Fossil Fuel Fee, Fossil Fuels, Big Coal, Fossil Fuel Industry, Reducing Carbon Emissions, Fossil Fuel Tax, Fossil Fuel Lobby, Coal Mining, Climate Change Denial, Oil Lobby, Green News

Fossil fuels seem cheap and convenient now, but when we get hit with the true costs -- of a spoiled environment, of missing out on vital future industries like clean energy, of a mounting public health burden, of possible war -- we'll see we were had.

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The Gift Of Good Health

Javier Sierra | Posted 03.18.2012

Read More: Fetuses, Learning Disabilities, Big Coal, Epa, Public Health, Obama Administration, Global Motherhood, Babies, Mercury and Air Toxics Standards, Coal-Fired Plants, Coal Pollution, Decreased IQ, Hispanic Community, Cerebral Palsy, Mercury, Birth Defects, Neurotoxin, Latino Voices News

According to a LULAC study, almost 30 percent of Hispanics live dangerously close to a coal-fired plant.

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Disgraced Senator Resurfaces Lobbying For Big Coal

HuffingtonPost.com | Dave Jamieson | Posted 12.22.2011

Read More: Jay Rockefeller, Lobbying, Big Coal, Mining, Lobbyists, Crandall Canyon, Mine Safety, Mine Safety and Health Administration, Coal Mining, Coal, Larry Craig, Murray Energy, George Miller, Shelly-Moore-Capito, Upper Big Branch Mine, Green News

WASHINGTON -- Having left Congress after an embarrassing 2007 arrest, former Sen. Larry Craig (R-Idaho) has quietly reemerged in Washington as a lobby...

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BUSTED: Why Did House Committee Censor Appalachian Testimony on Mountaintop Removal? (VIDEO)

Jeff Biggers | Posted 11.29.2011

Read More: Appalachia, Dirty Coal, House Natural Resource Committee, Big Coal, Maria Gunne, Mountaintop Removal, Bo Webb, Nick Rahall, Joe Manchin, Coal, Green News

The House Natural Resources Committee has some explaining to do. A press release summary from the Subcommittee on Energy and Mineral Resources completely deleted any mention of the official testimonies by Appalachian coalfield leader.

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Appalachian Coalfield Leaders Turn Tables at Congressional Hearing on Mountaintop Removal

Jeff Biggers | Posted 11.26.2011

Read More: Dirty Coal, Congress, Big Coal, Humanitarian Crisis, Mountaintop Removal, Birth Defects, Cancer, Joe Manchin, Coal, Republicans, Green News

In gut-wrenching testimonies on the economic costs and humanitarian crisis related to mountaintop removal operations, two Appalachian coalfield leaders turned the tables on an EPA-bashing Natural Resources House Committee hearing in Charleston today.

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How One Miner Took On Big Coal

HuffingtonPost.com | Dave Jamieson | Posted 11.14.2011

WHITESBURG, Ky. -- On a July morning four years ago, Charles Scott Howard left his home in the mountains of Southeastern Kentucky and drove his pickup...

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Dear Soledad: Appalachian Leaders Respond to CNN's Blair Mountain Special on Mountaintop Removal

Jeff Biggers | Posted 10.15.2011

Read More: Appalachia, Lisa Jackson, Dirty Coal, Soledad O'Brien, Mining, Cnn, President Obama, Epa, Big Coal, Mountaintop Removal, Joe Manchin, Coal, Green News

If O'Brien and CNN wish to tell the real battle of Blair Mountain, they owe it to their viewers -- and the affected residents living under the fallout of mountaintop removal operations in central Appalachia -- to come back and tell the other side.

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Christmas in Summer

Javier Sierra | Posted 10.05.2011

Read More: Coal Pollution, Heat Wave, Latinos and Pollution, Bloomberg Philanthropies, Michael Bloomberg, Climate Change, Public Health, Big Coal, Beyond Coal Campaign, Dirty Coal-Fired Plants, Sierra Club, Premature-Deaths, Green News

In this Christmas in the summertime, Bloomberg has planted a seed of hope that promises that Big Coal's days are numbered.

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The best films of 2011 - so far

Marshall Fine | Posted 09.10.2011

Read More: Ewan McGregor, Sucker Punch, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Lars Von Trier, Bridesmaids, Woody Allen, J.J. Abrams, Certified Copy, A Better Life, An Inconvenient Truth, Paul Giamatti, Even the Rain, Zach Galifianakis, Paris in the 20s, Melanie Laurent, Midnight in Paris, Weeds, Cedar Rapids, Jeffrey Tambor, Incendies, Win Win, Super 8, Marshall Fine Commentary, The First Grader, Amy Ryan, Owen Wilson, The Last Mountain, Beginners, Hanna, Uncle Boonmee, In a Better World, Christopher Plummer, Bobby Cannavale, Tom Mccarthy, The Hangover, Applause, When We Leave, I Saw the Devil, Marshall Fine, The Lincoln Lawyer, Ed Helms, Big Coal, Demian Bichir, Tree of Life, Entertainment News

So - if the movie year had ended June 30 and we had to choose the best films of 2011 from the releases that hit American screens since Jan. 1, which o...

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Feds Cite Chronic Safety Failures In Upper Big Branch Mine Disaster

HuffingtonPost.com | Dave Jamieson | Posted 08.29.2011

Read More: Energy, Upper Big Branch West Virginia, Massey Energy, West Virginia Coal, West Virginia Mine, Big Coal, Massey, West Virginia, Department of Labor, Upper Big Branch, Coal, Upper Big Branch Mine Disaster, Msha, Hilda Solis, Mine Safety and Health Administration, Upper Big Branch Mine, Green News

WASHINGTON -- The federal agency tasked with overseeing mine safety released on Wednesday its preliminary findings on the Upper Big Branch Mine disast...

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Heartland Coal Crisis: Illinois Bankrolls Big Coal School Program? Interview With Eco-Justice Leader Lan Richart

Jeff Biggers | Posted 08.22.2011

Read More: Dirty Coal, Clean Coal, Big Coal, Coal-Fired Plants, Brent Ritzel, National-Coal-Campaign, Coal Curriculum, Coal Marketing, Eco-Justive, Scholastic Coal, Coal Companies, Green News

Illinois has been pushing a misleading and downright shameless Big Coal-approved curriculum and educational activities on children and their teachers around the state.

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Robert Kennedy, Jr. Climbs The Last Mountain

Alex Simon | Posted 08.06.2011

Read More: Kennedy, Big Coal, Pace University, Mountain Top Removal, Documentary, Environmentalism, Interview, Robert Kennedy, The Last Mountain, Green News

Robert Kennedy, Jr. has carved out a legacy of his own as one of the nation's, and the world's, leading environmental activists and advocates.

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Investigator Flays Coal Company In Upper Big Branch Disaster

HuffingtonPost.com | Dave Jamieson | Posted 07.19.2011

Read More: Msha, Massey Energy, Big Coal, West Virginia, J. Davitt McAteer, Sago Mine, West Virginia Mine Disaster, Work Safety, Upper Big Branch Mine, Green News

NEW YORK -- The lead investigator examining the Upper Big Branch Mine tragedy lambasted coal company Massey Energy Thursday for failing to ensure the ...

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Whistleblowing Miner Fired

HuffingtonPost.com | Dave Jamieson | Posted 07.17.2011

Read More: Coal Miners, Massey Energy, Whistleblowers, Big Coal, Charles Scott Howard, Regulation, Arch Coal, Mine Safety and Health Administration, Upper Big Branch Mine, Politics News

WASHINGTON -- A Kentucky miner whose whistleblower case recently caught the attention of mine safety proponents on Capitol Hill was fired yesterday, h...

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The Saccharine Republican Ire

Joseph A. Palermo | Posted 05.31.2011

Read More: Supreme Court, Michelle Bachmann, Tea Party, Louie Gohmert, Medicare Part D, Big Coal, Wto, Big Pharma, Dodd-Frank, Republican Party, Nafta, Glass-Steagall, Republicans, Bush Tax Cuts, Newt Gingrich, Politics News

Republican ire and calls to "take the country back" are confusing because for quite some time now the Right has set the agenda and has defined the parameters of what is politically possible in this country.

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Big Coal Giveaway

Michael Brune | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Birth Defects, Powder River Basin, Coal, President Obama, Coal Mining Birth Defects, Coal Mining, Big Coal, Green News

This week, in the heart of one of the nation's best potential wind energy-producing regions, the Powder River Basin, the Obama administration handed away thousands of acres of federal land, land owned by you and me, to the coal industry.

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Big Coal WikiLeaks Emergency in Bangladesh: Does Obama Support Removal of 100,000 Villagers?

Jeff Biggers | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Wikileaks, Ambassador James Moriarty, Dirty Coal, International Accountability Project, President Obama, Central-Asia-Energy, Clean Coal, World Bank, Cultural Survival, Environmental Rights, Open Pit Mining, Bangladesh, Indigenous People, Epa, Human Rights, Climate Change, Big Coal, India, Green News

Many are questioning why the Obama administration is covertly pushing for Bangladesh to reverse course and acquiesce to an internationally condemned open-pit mine that will displace an estimated 100,000-200,000 villagers.

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Inside the Governor's Office: With Wendell Berry and Other Anti-Mountaintop Removal Protestors

Lisa Bennett | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Silas House, Epa, Dirty Coal, Wendell Berry, Coal, Teri Blanton, Mountaintop Removal, Green News, Big Coal, Kentucky, Kftc, Clean Coal, Green News

FRANKFORT, KY, Feb. 11, 2011 -- Wendell Berry, Kentucky's most famous author and one of America's most respected essayists, is among sixteen protester...

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Live at the KY Capitol on Day 3: Exclusive Video Interviews with Wendell Berry and Sit-in Activists

Jeff Biggers | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Appalachia, Dirty Coal, Teri Blanton, Clean Coal, Big Coal, Stanley Sturgill, Mountaintop Removal, Gov. Beshear, Wendell Berry, Just Transition, Chad Berry, Coal, Kentucky Sit-In, Green News

As the sun rose on the Frankfort capitol in Kentucky on this beautiful winter morning, 14 anti-mountaintop removal activists were already in meetings ...

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LIVE UPDATES FROM HISTORIC KY SIT-IN: Wendell Berry, Scholars Join Retired Coal Miner, Residents in Kentucky Rising at Capitol (Photos)

Jeff Biggers | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Dirty Coal, Silas House, Wendell Berry, Teri Blanton, Mountaintop Removal, Clean Coal, Big Coal, Nrdc, President Obama, Epa, Kentucky, Kftc, Green News

The Kentucky activists declared their intent "to remain in his office until the governor agrees to stop the poisoning of Kentucky's land, water, and people by mountaintop removal; or until he chooses to have the citizens physically removed."

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Obama Is Whistling Past Coal's Graveyard

Anne Butterfield | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Coal Power, Clean Coal, Big Coal, Renewable Energy, Clean Energy, Obama State of the Union, Climategate, Obama SOTU 2011, Denver News

Climate hawks and world leaders should stick to the truth, knowing it will pay dividends in street cred down the road as human-caused climate change is inexorably, irrefutably and tragically vindicated.

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Yes, Virginia, This Dirty Coal Bill Is a Bad Bar Room Romance

Jeff Biggers | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Virginia, Epa, Appalachia, Dirty Coal, Sen. Jim Webb, Clean Coal, Big Coal, West Virginia, Clean Water Act, Kentucky, Mountaintop Removal, Lisa-Jackson, Strip Mining, Coal, Green News

A handful of Virginia politicians appear more intent on providing loopholes to circumvent growing national concern over clean water laws than to protect their own citizens -- and their own state budget.

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