WATE TV 6 includes coverage of the recent ruling in favor of mountaintop mining in their series "The Cost of Coal".  Read about the ruling in our previous posts here.

West Virginia Governor Joe Manchin recently sat down with the editorial board of a local newspaper and dished about the state's coal industry, nuclear energy, environmentalists and obstructionists.  Highlights include Governor Manchin's wish to have nuclear power as a part of West Virginia's energy portfolio and the balance that can be achieved when working with environmentalists.

Read the story in the Register Herald.

They must either adapt or be be left behind according to West Virginina Senator Jay Rockefeller.  This directive was the result of Rockefeller's urging coal operators to support a bill he introduced for the development of renewable energy sources in West Virginia.

Read the details at West Virginia Public Broadcasting.

After surveying the massive coal ash spill in Tennessee, Senator Lamar Alexander recommends a faster transition into nuclear power and renewable energy sources.  However, Alexander concedes that coal must be the primary source of electrical energy for the near future.

Read the story at macon.com.

A petition granted by the Environmental Protection Agency calls for a review of a memorandum that disallows carbon dioxide emissions to be considered in the federal approval process for power plants.

Read the article in the New York Times.

This time the unfavorable forecast comes from the president of the National Mining Association in a speech given to the West Virginia Coal Assocation today.

Read how much he expects production will drop in BusinessWeek.

Members of the Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition and Coal River Mountain Watch environmentalist groups are denouncing the federal ruling last Friday that went in favor of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The environmentalists claim that the courts are not listening to the scientists who are debunking the Corps' efforts to mitigate the loss of streams covered by the process of mountaintop removal.

Read our post about the Friday's ruling here.

Read more about the responses from environmentalists at SustainableBusiness.com.

Yet another chink in the armor of "clean" coal is a new treaty called for by the Obama administration which seeks to eliminate mercury pollution.  Coal-fired power plants are responsible for more than 50% of all mercury emissions.  With environmental concerns a top priority and mercury pollution referred to as the gravest chemical problem in the world, this news does not bode well for the coal industry.

Read the Associated Press story on Google News.

Climate change concerns are intesifying and coal is being acknowledged by a growing number of people as the crux of the problem.  The push to make coal "clean", viewed as the only viable solution by the coal industry, seems certain to raise the cost of producing energy from coal so high that it will have to be funded by the government.

The fallout from this includes a deluge of plans for new coal-burning power plants being denied as the coal industry fights to survive.

Read the story at the New York Times.

The United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit overturned a previous ruling that may open the door for backlogged mountaintop mining permits.  The former ruling claimed that the Army Corps of Engineers had wrongly issued these permits as a result of freely allowing mining companies to bury streams.

Read the article at the New York Times.