Coal

COAL

Coal, a black or brownish-black sedimentary rock, is the most abundant fossil fuel on earth. It takes millions of years to develop and is, like other fossil fuels, created from the remains of ancient organisms.

Utilized, since the cave man, for heating and cooking, it was also used in the Roman Empire to heat public baths and, during the Aztec Empire, as a decorative ornament.

Currently, coal is extracted from the earth either by surface or underground mining. Once extracted, composed mostly of carbon and hydrocarbons, the energy it contains can be released through combustion (burning) either directly (for heating and industrial processes) or to fuel power plants for electricity – close to 90% of U.S. coal consumption is in the electric power sector.

Currently mined in 25 states, the U.S., with one of the world’s largest coal reserves, has (as of July, 2020) 263 operating coal-fired power plants, having retired 288 over the ten previous years.

The first one was in lower Manhattan, which began operation in September, 1882. Later that same month, the country’s second commercial power plant was a hydropower plant in Appleton, Wisconsin. Within three years, coal became the most-used energy source in America, overtaking renewables including hydropower and wood.

By 2019, U.S. coal-fired electricity generation had fallen to a 42-year low with annual energy consumption from clean energy sources exceeding coal consumption for the first time in more than 100 years. This was mainly the result of growth in gas plants and renewable energy.

To add insult to injury — just in the year 2019 over 2018 — the decline was so significant that coal consumption in the United States decreased nearly 15%. Despite its decline it remains, however, the dominant CO2 emissions source related to electricity generation — accounting for 60% of the electric power sector CO2 emissions in 2019.

Coal has always been plentiful and cheap, as fossil fuels go, before gas became cheaper and renewables more available. The reduction of our reliance on coal is fortunate in so far as toxins and greenhouse gases, such as carbon dioxide, are concerned. Extraction and burning releases the highest levels of pollutants into the air including sulfur dioxide, another pollutant gas that causes respiratory problems, damages crops, forests, and lakes.

Surface mining also permanently alters the landscape. In mountaintop removal, the landscape itself is obliterated and ecosystems are destroyed. This increases erosion in the area. Streams may be blocked, increasing the chances for flooding. Toxins often leach into groundwater, streams, and aquifers.

Coal is one of the most controversial energy sources in the world. The advantages of coal mining are economically and socially significant. And, yet, mining devastates the environment: air, land, and water. Coal combustion is, by far, the nation’s primary culprit of global warming.

What is Coal - More Science on the Learning Videos Channel

CURRENT NEWS

Why It’s Important to Phase Out Coal

08/18/23
Sierra Club’s Senior Director for Energy Campaigns, Holly Bender, answers a few pressing questions on the effects of coal, and a few practical ways people can help the clean energy transition – from engaging local…
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ER visits for heart problems plummeted after Pittsburgh coal processor shut down

By Kristina Marusic 08/07/23
The closure of one of Pittsburgh’s largest coal-processing plants in 2016 led to a lasting reduction in hazardous air pollution and a decrease in heart-related hospital visits, according to a new study.
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DTE to retire coal plants by 2032, invest $11 billion in clean energy push

07/12/23
Utility firm DTE Energy (DTE.N) said on Wednesday that it plans to retire its coal plants in less than a decade and invest $11 billion over the next 10 years toward clean energy transition. The…
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Which Countries Are Most Reliant on Coal?

By Bruno Venditti 07/11/23
Global energy policies and discussions in recent years have been focused on the importance of decarbonizing the energy system in the transition to net zero.
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Carbon Capture Faces a Major Test in North Dakota

By Dan Gearino 07/06/23
Energy companies have talked for years about how carbon capture technology will preserve their ability to burn coal and natural gas in a world that needs to drastically cut carbon emissions.
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DOJ sues coal firms owned by Jim Justice’s family

By Rachel Frazin and Zack Budryk 05/31/23
The Justice Department on Wednesday announced a civil action against coal mines owned by the son of 2024 West Virginia Senate candidate Gov. Jim Justice (R).
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New green energy surges past coal in China

By Xuyang Dong 05/24/23
In the global race to decarbonize and meet growing energy demand, China is setting the pace for solar, wind and EVs. Renewable energy is now leading China’s newly added power capacity for the first time,…
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Biden seeks to tighten regulation of toxic power plant coal waste dumps

By Timothy Puko 05/17/23
Scores of power plant coal waste landfills, previously exempted from EPA oversight, would be regulated under a proposed rule
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Biden’s big bet to take on coal power

By Alex Guillen and Zack Colman 04/26/23
The upcoming rule from the Environmental Protection Agency is expected to depend on rarely used technology for capturing power plants’ greenhouse gas pollution. It will have to survive the conservative Supreme Court that hobbled the…
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G7 vows more effort on renewables but sets no coal phaseout deadline

By Eddy Wax 04/16/23
The Group of Seven richest countries set higher 2030 targets for generating renewable energy, amid an energy crisis provoked by Russia's war on Ukraine, but they set no deadline to phase out coal-fired power plants.
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Earth Could Warm 3 Degrees if Nations Keep Building Coal Plants, New Research Warns

By Kristoffer Tigue 04/07/23
Earth is on track to significantly overshoot a critical global climate target, largely because not enough coal-fired power plants are being retired, researchers warned in two new reports. Some nations are even planning new coal…
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KEY RESOURCES

High Cost of Cheap Coal: The Coal Paradox

10/09/20
On a scorching August day in southwestern Indiana, the giant Gibson generating station is running flat out. Its five 180-foot-high (54.9-meter-high) boilers are gulping 25 tons (22.7 metric tons) of coal each minute, sending thousand-degree…

Energy and the environment explained: Where greenhouse gases come from

10/09/20
In the United States, most of the emissions of human-caused (anthropogenic) greenhouse gases (GHG) come primarily from burning fossil fuels—coal, natural gas, and petroleum—for energy use. Economic growth (with short-term fluctuations in growth rate) and…

U.S. renewable energy consumption surpasses coal for the first time in over 130 years

10/09/20
In 2019, U.S. annual energy consumption from renewable sources exceeded coal consumption for the first time since before 1885, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration’s (EIA) Monthly Energy Review. This outcome mainly reflects the…

U.S. coal-fired electricity generation in 2019 falls to 42-year low

10/09/20
Output from the U.S. coal-fired generating fleet dropped to 966,000 gigawatthours (GWh) in 2019, the lowest level since 1976. The decline in last year’s coal generation levels was the largest percentage decline in history (16%)…

The historic decline of US coal

10/09/20
The first commercial power plant in the US was Thomas Edison’s coal-fired Pearl Street station in lower Manhattan, which started operating in September 1882. Later that same month, the country’s (and Edison’s) second commercial power…

Raising Awareness of the Health Impacts of Coal Plant Pollution

07/30/20
In 2000, 2004 and again in 2010, the Clean Air Task Force issued studies based on a methodology and model created by Abt Associates, U.S EPA’s own health benefits consultant, based on peer-reviewed, published studies…

EndCoal.org Global Coal Plant Tracker

02/21/20
We are environmental, social justice and health advocates who are concerned about coal’s heavy toll on human health, our natural environment and the planet’s climate.

Coal Power Impacts

02/21/20
Formed deep underground over thousands of years of heat and pressure, coal is a carbon-rich black rock that releases energy when burned. In the United States, roughly 30 percent of all electricity comes from coal:…

The Coal Industry Was Well Aware of Climate Change Predictions Over 50 Years Ago

11/26/19
A rediscovered journal from the 1960s reveals the coal industry has understood the dangers of human-caused climate change for over 50 years, and may constitute the earliest known evidence of such fateful insider knowledge.

Coal ash contaminates groundwater near most US coal plants: study

03/04/19
More than 90 percent of U.S. coal-fired power plants that are required to monitor groundwater near their coal ash dumps show unsafe levels of toxic metals, according to a study released on Monday by environmental…

MORE NEWS

EPA clamps down on mercury from coal power plants

By Timothy Puko   04/05/23  
Biden administration officials are ramping up regulations on coal, seeking stronger limits on mercury and other toxic air pollutants from power plants as part of a wider attempt to crackdown on pollution and greenhouse gas…
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U.S. on track to close half of coal capacity by 2026

By Seth Feaster   04/03/23  
The United States is rapidly approaching a milestone in the electricity sector’s energy transition: By the end of 2026, it will have closed half of its coal generation capacity, which peaked in 2011. This is…
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Why Kentucky Is Dead Last for Wind and Solar Production

By James Bruggers and Dan Gearino   03/31/23  
LOUISVILLE, Ky.—Andy McDonald recalls a decade-old Kentucky legislative hearing on an energy diversification bill with the same sense of frustration that he felt back then, when he testified before a panel of lawmakers who were…
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EPA Proposes ‘Strongest Ever’ Standards for Keeping Coal Plant Pollution Out of U.S. Waterways

By Olivia Rosane   03/09/23  
When wastewater from coal-fired plants is released into wider waterways, it can have serious consequences. Environmental toxins including mercury, arsenic, bromide and chloride can pollute drinking water and aquatic habitats, causing cancer and other ailments…
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More coal plants could shut down under EPA’s new water pollution rule

By Anna Phillips   03/08/23  
The Biden administration moved Wednesday to strengthen a rule limiting millions of gallons of toxic water pollution from coal power plants, a change that could lead some plants to shut down or switch to burning…
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China’s Renewable Energy Capacity Overtakes Coal for First Time

By Zhao Xuan and Ward Zhou   02/15/23  
China's renewable energy generation capacity edged out coal power capacity for the first time last year, with new solar driving the electricity sector’s efforts to reach ambitious national carbon emissions goals even as the removal…
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Judge blocks coal mine expansion sought by Signal Peak

By Amanda Eggert   02/13/23  
Judge found ‘sufficiently serious’ errors in the Interior Department’s environmental review of a 7,100-acre expansion of the Bull Mountains Mine.
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Coal Ash Along the Shores of the Great Lakes Threatens Water Quality as Residents Rally for Change – Inside Climate News

By Grace van Deelen   02/05/23  
Just four miles up the shore from the public beach in Waukegan, Illinois, sits the Waukegan Generating Station, a formerly coal-powered electricity plant. According to Dulce Ortiz, a Waukegan resident, the coal ash—a byproduct of…
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Renewable energy farms outstrip 99% of coal plants economically

By Oliver Milman   01/30/23  
It is cheaper to build solar panels or cluster of wind turbines and connect them to the grid than to keep operating coal plants.
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New Wind and Solar Are Cheaper Than the Costs to Operate All But One Coal-Fired Power Plant in the United States

By Dan Gearino   01/30/23  
A coal-fired plant near Gillette, Wyoming stands alone in the nation on one measure of economic viability—a positive distinction for that plant, but a damning one for coal-fired electricity in general. Dry Fork Station, with…
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The Coal Cost Crossover 3.0

01/28/23  
The cost of running existing coal power plants in the United States continues rising while new wind and solar costs keep falling. Our first Coal Cost Crossover report (2019) found 62 percent of U.S. coal…
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How political will often favors a coal billionaire and his dirty fossil fuel

By Gerry Shih and Others   12/09/22  
The tale of Gautam Adani's giant power plant reveals how political will in Modi's India bends in favor of the dirty fuel....
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Coal was the largest source of electricity generation for 15 states in 2021

12/07/22  
In 15 U.S. states last year, coal was used to generate electricity more than any other energy source. Twenty years earlier, in 2001, coal was the largest source of electricity generation in 32 states. The…
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Carbon Removal Is Coming to Fossil Fuel Country. Can It Bring Jobs and Climate Action? – Inside Climate News

By Nicholas Kusnetz   12/04/22  
ROCK SPRINGS, Wyo.—In early fall, residents of this desolate corner of southwestern Wyoming opened their mailboxes to find a glossy flyer. On the front, a truck barreled down a four-lane desert highway with a solar…
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Soaring West Virginia Electricity Prices Trigger Standoff Over the State’s Devotion to Coal Power

By Marianne Lavelle   11/20/22  
West Virginia regulators accuse American Electric Power of driving up costs with skimpy use of its coal plants. Others say the high costs of those aging plants are a growing burden to citizens in one…
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Over 130 Power Plants That Have Spawned Leaking Toxic Coal Ash Ponds and Landfills Don’t Think Cleanup Is Necessary

By James Bruggers   11/03/22  
EPA coal ash regulations issued in 2015 allow polluting utilities to self-regulate. And a giant loophole exempts coal ash piles that stopped receiving coal plant waste before that year.
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Coal producers legally must restore damaged land, but some are dodging obligations

By A Martinez and Others   10/17/22  
Over the last decade, the coal industry collapsed, leaving the largest producers bankrupt. This, however, turned out to be an opportunity. Coal companies are legally mandated to restore the torn-up land and polluted creeks left…
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The energy crisis has revived the coal market

By Matt Phillips   09/13/22  
Coal prices are soaring as the global energy crisis forces power providers worldwide to boost usage of the carbon-laden mineral. Why it matters: A renewed embrace of coal represents a turnabout from the previous global…
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Hawaii Closes Its Last Coal-Fired Power Plant

By Elena Shao   09/02/22  
Hawaii shuttered its last remaining coal-fired power station on Thursday, a major milestone in the state’s ambitious effort to transition to 100 percent renewable energy by 2045. The station, the AES Hawaii Power Plant near…
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Inflation Reduction Act Benefits: Billions In Just Transition Funding For Coal Communities

By Michael O' Boyle   08/24/22  
The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) is the most significant climate legislation in United States history. Energy Innovation Policy and Technology LLC® modeling finds the IRA’s $370 billion in climate and clean energy investments could cut…
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Federal court cites human health, climate costs in rejecting massive Wyoming, Montana coal mining plan

08/04/22  
A federal judge late yesterday struck down two U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) resource management plans that failed to address the public health consequences of allowing massive amounts of coal, oil, and gas production…
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Hawaii Gets Its Last Shipment of Coal, Ever

By Molly Taft   07/29/22  
It’s the end of a dirty era in Hawaii. The state’s last-ever coal shipment arrived in Oahu on Wednesday, bound for the last remaining coal-fired power plant, which is due to shut down in September.
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State regulators approve Georgia Power’s plans to retire all coal plants by 2028 except for Plant Bowen

By Lulia Gheorghiu   07/22/22  
State regulators unanimously approved Georgia Power’s 2022 Integrated Resources Plan, or IRP, on Thursday, which includes retiring all of its coal plants by 2028, with the exception of two units from Plant Bowen totaling nearly…
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In a twist, old coal plants help deliver renewable power. Here’s how.

By Elena Shao   07/15/22  
The sites, once a source of greenhouse gases, have a useful feature: They’re wired to the electricity grid. For new ventures like solar farms, that can save a lot of time and money.
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Key nations agree to halt funding for new fossil fuel projects

By Brady Dennis and Steven Mufson   05/27/22  
Top environmental ministers from the Group of Seven major industrial countries agreed Friday to end government financing for international coal-fired power generation and to accelerate the phasing out of unabated coal plants by the year…
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This tiny Utah town could shape the West’s energy future

By Sammy Roth   05/19/22  
Five days into our Western energy road trip, photographer Rob Gauthier and I drove late into the night across Utah, following the setting sun as it bathed the red-rock cliffs and snow-starved Wasatch Mountains in…
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The Decline of Kentucky’s Coal Industry Has Produced Hundreds of Safety and Environmental Violations at Strip Mines

By James Bruggers   04/18/22  
As the coal industry has collapsed in Kentucky, companies have racked up a rising number of violations at surface mines, and state regulators have failed to bring a record number of them into compliance, internal…
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New York shows the challenges of phasing out fossil fuels

By Maxine Joselow   04/12/22  
In December, when the New York City Council voted to ban natural gas use in new buildings, environmentalists in the Big Apple barely stopped to celebrate.
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How Joe Manchin Aided Coal, and Earned Millions

By Christopher Flavelle and Julie Tate   03/27/22  
On a hilltop overlooking Paw Paw Creek, 15 miles south of the Pennsylvania border, looms a fortresslike structure with a single smokestack, the only viable business in a dying Appalachian town.
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‘Last Gasp for Coal’ Saw Illinois Plants Crank up Emission-Spewing Production Last Year

By Brett Chase and Dan Gearino   03/18/22  
When Illinois lawmakers decided last year to ban most coal-burning power plants by 2030, it was because their harmful effects were well known.
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Beijing ‘doubling down on fossil fuels’; china’s co2 emissions increase; coal production growth

03/17/22  
Chinese leaders are “doubling down on fossil fuels” amid “growing” fears of global energy shortages and “rising” concerns of an economic slump, according to Bloomberg. The news came after the Chinese government repeatedly underlined the…
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Coal Mining Emits More Super-Polluting Methane Than Venting and Flaring From Gas and Oil Wells, a New Study Finds

By Phil McKenna   03/15/22  
Methane emissions from coal mines worldwide exceed those from the global oil or gas sectors and are significantly higher than prior estimates by the Environmental Protection Agency and the International Energy Agency, a new Global…
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Coal helped drive energy-related CO2 emissions to a record high last year, research says

By Anmar Frangoul   03/09/22  
Energy-related carbon dioxide emissions rose to their highest level in history last year, according to the International Energy Agency, as economies rebounded from the coronavirus pandemic with a heavy reliance on coal. The IEA found…
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In Virginia, abandoned coal mines are transformed into solar farms

By Zoeann Murphy   03/03/22  
Empty freight cars line the railroad tracks as far as the eye can see from Tim Jennings’s backyard in Dante — a town of less than 600 residents. “They should open up some more new…
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US coal use on the rise, but renewables continue rapid growth

By Karin Kirk   02/25/22  
In the U.S., the amount of coal burned to generate electricity peaked in 2007 and then, between 2007 and 2020, fell by more than 61 percent. But as the effects of Covid-19 continue to re-shape…
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DOE will build nation’s first large-scale facility to turn fossil fuel waste into rare materials for tech

By Ella Nilsen   02/14/22  
The vast majority of critical minerals and rare earth elements that help power electric vehicles and wind turbines come from mining operations overseas. But a new initiative spearheaded by the US Department of Energy is…
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EPA nears deal with Wyo. over massive coal plant

By Benjamin Storrow   02/07/22  
After months of trading barbs, EPA and Wyoming officials say they’ve had a breakthrough in talks over the future of one of America’s largest coal plants. The reversal comes after a meeting between EPA Administrator…
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The environmental case for buying a coal mine

By Richard Fisher   01/19/22  
One day, the Swedish energy company Vattenfall decided to divest itself from a particularly dirty form of coal extraction in Germany, so it advertised that its mines were for sale. It would get an offer…
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How coal holds on in America

By Joshua Partlow   01/17/22  
David Saggau, the chief executive of an energy cooperative, tried to explain the losing economics of running a coal-fired power plant to a North Dakota industry group more than a year ago.
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The Biden Administration Takes Action on Toxic Coal Ash Waste

By James Bruggers   01/12/22  
The Biden administration on Tuesday took its first significant move toward corralling lingering and widespread problems with the toxic ash produced by coal-fired power plants, one of the nation’s most prominent long-term environmental health legacies…
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Black Farmers Are Rebuilding Agriculture in Coal Country

By Natalie Peart   01/10/22  
While most people associate West Virginia with coal mining, the hills and valleys are also suited for agriculture. And as coal production wanes, farmers are seeing growing opportunities to expand their sector.
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Coal and trucks pushed US ‘further off track’ for climate targets in 2021

By Josh Gabbatiss   01/10/22  
US emissions surged by 6.2% last year, boosted by a renewed reliance on coal power amid soaring natural gas prices, according to the Rhodium Group. After falling sharply in 2020 due to the economic impact…
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Opinion: West Virginia’s coal miners just made Joe Manchin’s life a lot harder

By Greg Sargent   01/10/22  
For months, Sen. Joe Manchin III has sold his opposition to the Build Back Better proposal as driven uniformly by a brave and hardheaded assessment of the national interest. He has warned that BBB will…
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Coal plant explosion should be a wake-up call

By Baltimore Sun Editorial Board   01/03/22  
Late Thursday morning, an explosion in Curtis Bay rattled buildings, broke windows and likely frayed some nerves. A buildup of coal dust at the CSX Coal Plant Building was blamed for the blast, which could…
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The world generated more power from coal in 2021 than ever before

By Amy Gunia   12/18/21  
The amount of electricity generated from coal is expected to hit an all-time high this year, as electricity demand outpaces low-carbon supply options, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA). That means that the world’s…
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Global demand for coal could hit all-time high in 2022

By Jillian Ambrose   12/16/21  
Electricity from coal plants has risen by 9% this year to fuel economic recovery from Covid, says watchdog.
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Campaign to shut down New England’s last coal plant is doing ‘what must be done’ for the planet

By Arnie Alpert   11/17/21  
There’s one form of power that’s generated when hot water turns turbines to create electricity. There are other forms of power held by investors, property owners and regulatory agencies.
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1 big thing: The long road to phasing down coal

By Ben Geman and Andrew Freedman   11/17/21  
Let's leave to history to see whether the COP26 deal to "phase down" coal instead of "phase out" makes any real-world difference, but what's clear is that any meaningful "phasing" at all is hard, Ben…
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Where electric cars could help save coal

By Will Englund   11/09/21  
Disdain for electric cars runs deep in this state. In the Bakken oil fields, which have brought enormous riches to North Dakota, workers fume at them on Facebook discussion groups, calling them “worthless” or worse.…
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Why the U.S. Didn’t Join 40 Other Countries in Pledge to End Coal

By Benjamin Storrow   11/08/21  
The Biden administration arrived this month at international climate talks in Scotland with the intent to prove the United States was again ready to lead the fight against global warming.But when more than 40 countries…
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