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    Pence Family Gas Station Failures Cost Taxpayers More Than $20 Million

    Pence Family Gas Station Failures Cost Taxpayers More Than $20 Million

    A failed gas station empire owned by the family of Vice President Mike Pence has left communities in his home state saddled with millions of dollars in ongoing cleanup costs, the AP reported this weekend. An AP analysis of records relating to the 85 contaminated sites formerly owned by Kiel Bros. Oil Co., which collapsed […]

    Coal Execs Indicted for Lying on Safety Tests

    Coal Execs Indicted for Lying on Safety Tests

    Eight former coal company officials were indicted in a Kentucky court Wednesday on charges that they lied to federal regulators about the levels of breathable dust in their mines, increasing their miners’ risk of exposure to the conditions that can cause black lung disease. The indictment includes charges that the former supervisors and safety officials […]

    Another Coal Chemical Spill Pollutes Public Waterway, This Time in Kentucky

    Another Coal Chemical Spill Pollutes Public Waterway, This Time in Kentucky

    On Friday, May 30, another coal-related chemical spill polluted a public waterway in Central Appalachia, killing hundreds of fish and alarming local residents. The chemical spill happened at a Cumberland Coal Company prep plant in Harlan County, KY. This time, the spill was not of coal slurry or a coal-washing chemical, but of a flocculant—a type of compound usually used […]

    Mitch McConnell’s Pro-Coal Response Bill to Obama’s Carbon Plan Struck Down

    Mitch McConnell’s Pro-Coal Response Bill to Obama’s Carbon Plan Struck Down

    U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnnell (R-KY) surprised nobody with the bill he introduced Wednesday in response to U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Gina McCarthy’s detailing of President Barack Obama’s plan to reduce carbon dioxide emissions across the country. McConnell’s measure would have blocked the regulations within Obama’s proposal. It would have also provided the Senate minority […]

    How Kentucky’s Illegal Coal-Ash Contamination Typifies an American Crisis

    How Kentucky’s Illegal Coal-Ash Contamination Typifies an American Crisis

    The Kentucky Department of Environmental Protection (KDEP) had knowledge that a utility’s pond had been discharging “highly contaminated ‘orange colored’ water” through a drain pipe, but a proposal from Kentucky Utilities remains on the table. The company apparently wants to discharge even more orange water, which would be a byproduct of a proposed coal ash landfill on […]