Increased regulation of air-based pollutants and impending regulation of greenhouse gases by the Environmental Protection Agency are changing the balance of fuels used for electrical generation away from coal and towards natural gas. Based on pure economics, utilities are choosing to close existing coal-based power plants instead of retrofitting them with the mitigation tech causing utilities to retire existing coal-plants and replace them with plants powered by natural gas which emits less pollution and far fewer greenhouse gases.

Read more at http://billingsgazette.com/news/state-and-regional/wyoming/article_9aed51c6-d4db-11df-9103-001cc4c002e0.html

After decades of being mostly out of the news, members of the Quaker faith are channeling their traditions of non-violent protest towards environmental issues. One new group within the Quaker faith, the Earth Quaker Action Team, is targeting mountaintop removal and specifically PNC Bank, the largest financier of mountaintop removal projects and a bank that originally has Quaker roots.

Read more at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/eileen-flanagan/quakers-advocate-living-i_b_752775.html

October 7, 2010

ICG Hazard, ICG Knott and Trinity Coal, the three largest mountaintop removal coal producers in Kentucky, have been served with intent-to-sue letters alleging among other things that they have exceeded the pollution discharge limits in their operating permits for iron, total suspended solids, pH and manganese.

The letters further contend the companies have engaged in fraud by filing false discharge monitoring reports. Multiple times the exact same numbers were recorded for the levels of effluent and in some cases reports were submitted where the date of the previous report was just scratched out and replaced with a more current date.

Read more at http://www.grist.org/article/coal-companies-charged-with-massive-violations-of-water-pollution-laws-in-k/

October 6, 2010
The EPA is blocking water discharge permits issued by the state of Kentucky for 11 coal mines, claiming that the permits are not in compliance with the Clean Water Act because they fail to protect eastern Kentucky waterways. This is the first time in twenty years that the EPA has blocked such permits, and may signal that the EPA is considering taking over the permitting operations from Kentucky.

Read more at http://www.courier-journal.com/article/20101006/NEWS01/310060127/

By ERIK ECKHOLM – October 6, 2010
West Virginia files a suit to block the new EPA’s new stricter rules for mountaintop removal coal mining claiming, among other things, that the regulations are unlawful, based on inadequate science and represent an attack on the way of life in West Virginia. The EPA responded that the regulations were legal, scientific and appropriate. The suit was announced by Governor Joe Manchin who is in a tight senate race to fill the seat vacated by the late Senator Robert Byrd.

Read more at http://green.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/10/06/west-virginia-sues-over-mountaintop-mining-limits/

New research in coal country in West Virginia has discovered up geothermal resources far larger than were previously known. Based on a much larger survey than previous work, the new estimates show the potential for more than 18000 MW of electrical generation, up nearly 75% from the 2006 survey of geothermic potential. The researchers will present their results at the 2010 Geothermal Resources Council annual meeting in Sacramento, Oct. 24-27.

Read more at http://www.physorg.com/news205489444.html

BY JEFFREY TOMICH • jtomich@post-dispatch.com – October 1, 2010

Peabody Energy Corp. on Friday said it received an imminent danger order from federal mine safety regulators because of conditions at its Rawhide surface mine in Wyoming’s Powder River Basin.

The St. Louis-based coal giant said in a regulatry filing that the Sept. 28 order cited unstable parts of a highwall and an access road that was too narrow. The company said mine employees completed work requested by the government inspector and the order was terminated.

Read more at http://www.stltoday.com/business/energy/article_6b09f6ee-cda6-11df-87cb-00127992bc8b.html

New West Energy interviews Wyoming governor Dave Freudenthal who explains why he thinks that conventional wisdom is wrong about how utilities expansion into natural gas spells trouble for coal.

Read more at http://www.newwest.net/topic/article/coal_falls_while_natural_gas_rises_picture_in_wyoming_is_more_complicated/

By PATRICK REIS of Greenwire – September 29, 2010

Is the world about to begin running out of coal?

Two researchers say so. In a peer-reviewed article published in the journal Energy, they write that the world will hit “peak coal” production next year or shortly thereafter, and then mining would begin a long, steep decline.

Read more at http://www.nytimes.com/gwire/2010/09/29/29greenwire-study-worlds-peak-coal-moment-has-arrived-70121.html

By MARGARET BAUMAN – September 29th, 2010

A citizens group asked Gov. Sean Parnell today to halt additional state work on the Chuitna coal project until it is clear that the mine would not destroy miles of spawning and rearing wild salmon habitat.

The Chuitna Citizens Coalition’s concern is centered on Middle Creek, a tributary to the Chitna river.

Read more at http://thesewardphoenixlog.com/article/1039coalition_voices_concern_over_chuitna_coal