Former Department of Energy photographer Simon Edelman is filing a federal whistleblower suit after he leaked the photos of a private meeting between the energy secretary and Robert Murray.
In a speech in Kentucky on Monday, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt said the old rules aimed at reducing carbon dioxide were tantamount to declaring war on the coal industry.
The loss of jobs has stung as the coal industry has declined. Renewable power — especially solar — is now where the jobs are. Solar jobs outnumber those in coal, but coal jobs pay more.
Nearly 90 percent of Kentucky's electricity is from coal — the cheap energy source that helped build its manufacturing economy. Now it's struggling to respond as more businesses want clean energy.
Voters in Pennsylvania's Luzerne County have reliably picked Democrats for president — until now. Jamie Ruppert is among those blue-collar, working-class voters who switched parties to vote Trump.
For a long time, coal was king in eastern Kentucky. But the industry today is hemorrhaging jobs. The region is now struggling to rebuild its economy and find new jobs for unemployed miners.
As the coal industry struggles with falling prices, weak Chinese demand, regulatory changes and competition from fracking, St. Louis-based Peabody has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.
The U.S. coal industry is fading. As more companies declare bankruptcy, they may not be able to pay for land restoration projects — and taxpayers could be left with the cleanup bill.
