A flurry of newspaper articles has speculated that Michael Gove, the UK minister responsible for planning, will shortly approve the long-debated proposal for a new deep coal mine in Cumbria, northern England. Look closer, and this speculation is based on one unnamed source who told The Sunday Telegraph: “I don’t know for certain, but I […]
Organizers of the “Coal Baron Blockade” protest which targeted right-wing Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin’s coal empire Saturday afternoon reported that state police almost immediately began arresting campaigners who assembled in Grant Town, West Virginia. By Julia Conley Common Dreams “Sen. Joe Manchin’s policies hurt poor people and hurt our environment so deeply that activists are ready […]
A campaign to push Bitcoin to change its software code to use far less energy was launched this week by the Environmental Working Group, Greenpeace USA, and several groups battling Bitcoin mining facilities in their communities. Decrying Bitcoin’s growing greenhouse gas pollution, the campaign asks Bitcoin to change its code – not the climate. The […]
New research out of Texas reveals how wind and solar can replace coal power across the state and serve as a “model for the nation” amid mounting scientific warnings about the necessity of keeping fossil fuels in the ground and shifting to renewable energy. By Jessica Corbett Common Dreams Published in the journal Renewables: Wind, Water, and […]
Who effectively owns all of those 500+ abandoned cut-off mountain tops in WV that bankrupt coal companies aren’t going to help with, so ideal for wind and solar farms? The state? Can Biden make a deal, you know, a real deal deal, to fund converting them, and start to get them fixed up? How much […]
People fishing along the banks of the White River as it winds through Indianapolis sometimes pass by ominous signs warning about eating the fish they catch. One of the risks they have faced is mercury poisoning. Gabriel Filippelli, IUPUI The Conversation Mercury is a neurotoxic metal that can cause irreparable harm to human health – […]
In an ideal world, Joe Manchin’s decades-long dedication to preventing meaningful climate action would be driven by nothing more than service to the people of his state, West Virginia, and its reliance on coal. Safe to say though, this is not an ideal world. And as Scott Waldman meticulously details in a new investigation into Manchin’s […]
Why is it that coal companies are so shy about taking credit for their PR campaigns? Why do they go to such great lengths to conceal their hand behind basically every anti-climate initiative out there? Hardly a new question, or one without an obvious answer, but since it’s a new year, let’s unmask a new […]
With a new analysis in hand, an international climate advocacy group on Tuesday demanded that banks and investors worldwide use their leverage to force the coal industry to more rapidly end their planet-wrecking operations. By Jessica Corbett Common Dreams The new report by Paris-based Reclaim Finance—entitled The Coal Companies Watchlist: How finance can accelerate the coal phaseout—makes […]
Coal-fired power plants are blaming clean water protections for forcing them to close, but a loophole in the rule could just be helping them pollute more, E&E News reports. A Sierra Club report last month showed at least 26 power plants said they would shut down or stop burning coal because, their operators said, of […]
Following two months of negotiations, three political parties have agreed to form a new government in Germany, after hammering out a deal that includes plans to rapidly scale up renewables and “ideally” phase out coal power by 2030. By Josh Gabbatiss Carbon Brief Climate change was seen as an important issue in a federal election that […]
As Alabama miners continue their seven-month strike against Warrior Met Coal, a trio of U.S. senators on Tuesday sent letters of inquiry to the private equity firms the lawmakers say “made off like bandits” after taking over the company while workers “endured severe cuts to pay and benefits” in order to ensure its success. By Brett […]
About six years ago, British landed gentry Matt Ridley was a recurring voice in climate denial-land, penning long opinion pieces about the never-not-debunked pause in warming, criticizing the now-repeatedly-reproven hockey stick graph and otherwise leeching credibility from legitimate science institutions. But DeSmog’s revelation that his pro-coal and anti-climate lobbying might stem from the millions in annual fees from coal mines on his family estate seemed to put a damper on his eagerness to publish […]
Environmentalists on Monday hailed the shutdown of Portugal’s last coal-fired power plant—a move that came nearly nine years ahead of the government’s 2030 target—while warning against converting the facility to run on unsustainable biofuel. By Brett Wilkins Common Dreams Reuters reports the Pego power plant in Abrantes, which was responsible for 4% of Portugal’s carbon emissions, exhausted its coal stock […]
More than 40 countries have signed an agreement at COP26, the latest UN climate change summit in Glasgow, to phase out coal in electricity generation. The signatories include some of the world’s biggest coal burners: Canada, Poland, Vietnam, South Korea, Ukraine and Indonesia. The larger of these economies pledge to cease using coal in their […]