coal

Despite warnings from scientists that the world must rapidly cut coal use in order to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels and avoid the worst impacts of the climate crisis, China approved more new coal plants in 2022 than at any point in the last seven years. That’s the conclusion of […]

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has reaffirmed the legal, scientific and economic bases of the 2012 Mercury and Air Toxics Standards (MATS) that require coal– and oil-fired power plants to implement “significant reductions” in emissions of mercury, acid gases and other toxic pollutants, a press release from the EPA said. The decision reverses the […]

British bank Barclays has announced the narrowing of its lending criteria for clients involved in coal-fired power generation and will cease to finance the surface mining method of oil sands exploration and production, but has still not committed to restricting lending for oil and gas as some of its competitors have. In its annual report […]

The locations of the 36 drowning deaths during the catastrophic flooding in eastern Kentucky last summer are closely correlated with large-scale coal strip mines, and a local non-profit is calling on the DOI to investigate further.

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has declared a National State of Disaster over the country’s worst-ever rolling blackouts. Many customers have been without power for as much as 12 hours per day to keep aging coal-fired power plants — the backbone of the country’s electricity network — running. Ramaphosa called the power crisis “an existential […]

The Australian government on Wednesday rejected a proposed open pit coal mine that would have been located less than 6.2 miles from the Great Barrier Reef. 

Germany is in the midst of a debate about when it will stop using coal. While the current coalition government under Social Democrat Chancellor Olaf Scholz wants to phase out the highly polluting fossil fuel by 2030, states in the country’s east want to maintain an earlier, less ambitious target of 2038. Now, a report […]

It would be cheaper to build new renewable energy capacity than it is to continue operating nearly every existing coal plant in the U.S., a new report from Energy Innovation finds. Of the country’s remaining 210 coal-fired power plants, more than 99% cost more to run than it would cost to replace them with new […]