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Gas boom has its own climate questions
Posted by Gazette-Mail: Ken Ward Jr. on September 29th, 2013
Gazette-Mail: Earlier this month, when business boosters, community organizers and labor advocates gathered to brainstorm about diversifying the economy in West Virginia's coalfields, one alternative was mentioned over and over: The boom in natural gas production in the Marcellus Shale region of the state.
Over the past decade, West Virginia's natural gas production has more than doubled. Jobs in the industry have jumped by 55 percent.
The natural gas boom here and across the nation has brought climate change...
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Greenhouse gas controls not so far off, study says
Posted by Gazette-Mail: Ken Ward Jr. on August 4th, 2013
Gazette-Mail: A new study suggests that technology to capture greenhouse gas emissions from coal-fired power plants may be more ready for wide deployment than industry officials and political leaders in coal states would have the public believe.
The new review, published last week in the journal Energy Policy, found that most experts on the process don't question the "readiness" of carbon capture and storage, or CCS, technology.
"CCS experts share broad confidence in the technology's readiness, despite continued...
Coal jobs at 14-year high in Appalachia
Posted by Gazette-Mail: Ken Ward Jr. on November 19th, 2011
Gazette-Mail: Despite complaints about the Obama administration's "war on coal," employment in the Appalachian mining industry is at a 14-year high, according to new government data and congressional testimony.
Congressional allies of the coal industry this week intensified their attack on the administration, with three hearings to collect testimony critical of water protection rules and a proposed effort to streamline the federal Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement.
Nationwide, though,...
United States: Taking Big Coal to task is difficult
Posted by Gazette-Mail: Ken Ward Jr. on April 3rd, 2011
Gazette-Mail: On Jan. 14, 2009, officials from Aracoma Coal Co. pleaded guilty to 10 mine safety crimes. Prosecutors uncovered the violations during their investigation of a January 2006 fire at Aracoma's Alma No. 1 Mine in Logan County.
Delorice Bragg and Freda Hatfield were in court that day, too. Their husbands, Don and Elvis, died in the fire. The widows came to speak out against the government's promise not to bring any future charges against Aracoma's parent company, Massey Energy.
It wasn't the first...