Coal Mining

Doctors Confirm Black Lung In Victims Of Mine Blast

Howard Berkes — Fri, 17 May 2013 16:47:00 +0000

The tragic deaths of 29 coal miners in a massive explosion in 2010 have provided new evidence of a resurgence of the disease known as black lung.

On Monday, a team of pathologists and lung disease experts will present the results of a detailed study of lung tissue from some of the victims of the Upper Big Bran

Coal And Coral: Australia's Self-Destructive Paradox

Richard Harris — Sat, 23 Mar 2013 10:17:00 +0000

NPR Science Correspondent Richard Harris traveled to Australia's Great Barrier Reef to find out how the coral reefs are coping with increased water temperature and increasing ocean acidity, brought about by our burning of fossil fuels.

Natural Gas Dethrones King Coal As Power Companies Look To Future

Christopher Joyce — Fri, 01 Mar 2013 21:32:00 +0000
The way Americans get their electricity is changing. Coal is in decline. Natural gas is bursting out of the ground in record amounts. And the use of wind and solar energy is growing fast. All this is happening as power companies are trying to choose which kind of energy to bet on for the next several decades.
Until recently, half of these plants burned coal to make electricity. Now, that's down to about one-third. Since 2010, about 150 coal plants either have been retired or it's been announced they will be retired soon.
What knocked King Coal off its throne? Mostly natural gas.

Former Massey CEO Accused Of Conspiracy In Court Hearing

Howard Berkes — Thu, 28 Feb 2013 21:45:00 +0000
A relatively routine plea hearing in Beckley, W.Va, Thursday, took an unexpected and dramatic turn when a former Massey Energy executive implicated former CEO Don Blankenship in a criminal conspiracy.
It's the first time Blankenship has been publicly named as an alleged conspirator in the ongoing federal criminal investigation of the 2010 explosion at Massey's Upper Big Branch coal mine.
The accusation is also t

In Kentucky's Coal Country, A Resentment For Obama

Noah Adams — Mon, 21 Jan 2013 22:13:00 +0000
If the voters in Louisa, Ky., had their wish, Mitt Romney would have taken the oath of office Monday. Louisa is in eastern Kentucky, and "coal" was the one-word issue in the election. President Obama is seen as an enemy of coal mining and he got only 27 percent of the vote in the county.
And now comes word that Louisa is going to lose its biggest industry — a power generating plant that's been burning coal since 1962.
Stand outside the courthouse in Louisa, a small town of 2,000 people, and you'll see that it's easy to meet a coal miner. Mitchell Maynard is a third-generation miner.