As U.S. coal’s comedown continues, our latest Issue Backgrounder takes a close look at the factors behind the industry’s decline and finds a combination of economics, competition and shifting global markets, along with aging technology, politics and environmental pushback. What’s in store for coal in 2020?
"In 1849, Harriet Tubman escaped from the Eastern Shore farm where she was enslaved. Over the next several years, she would return 13 times, rescuing more than 70 enslaved relatives and friends, ... She has become a hero, with two national parks established in her honor, ... . But time has not been as kind to the lands that Tubman left behind, or the descendants of the first free African-American communities that called them home."
"Five decades ago, President Lyndon B. Johnson declared the polluted Potomac River a “national disgrace.” Although it is now much cleaner, officials in Washington are still not convinced the water is safe for humans to swim in. But many miles downriver, where the Potomac widens to lakelike proportions as it flows toward the Chesapeake Bay, it teems with a different species of swimmers whose presence may signal healthier waters: dolphins."
"Standing at an overlook on the top of Black Mountain — the tallest point in Kentucky — the wooded Appalachian mountains stretch on like a sea of green for miles."
"Ahead of a September meeting of the Chesapeake Bay states, Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan again called on Pennsylvania to step up efforts to clean up the estuary and urged the EPA to hold the commonwealth accountable. From Pennsylvania, he got a quick response."
"Federal regulators have found unsafe construction practices at work sites on the Atlantic Coast pipeline, spelling more trouble for a project that's already facing setbacks in court."
"Appalachia’s main industry is dying and some workers are looking to a new economic promise after Trump’s proves empty".
"The last coal-fired unit at a major power plant run by FirstEnergy Solutions Corp. in Pennsylvania will close its doors this November, retiring 19 months ahead of schedule, the utility announced Friday."
"Workers at the Philadelphia Energy Solutions refinery in South Philadelphia began neutralizing tens of thousands of barrels of a highly toxic chemical this week. The refinery is shutting down after an explosion and fire destroyed part of the plant. The company has entered Chapter 11 bankruptcy."
"A federal court has overturned a permit needed for the Atlantic Coast Pipeline to continue its path across West Virginia and Virginia, where some say construction would impact endangered species."
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