Audio
Trump Promised Big On Coal. Can He Deliver?
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Coal country is celebrating Donald Trump’s election victory. Support for Trump was strong from Appalachia to Wyoming, and people have high hopes he can reverse coal’s recent downturn. But can he?
Audio
In A Race To Represent Coal Country, Two Visions For The Future
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What to do about coal jobs has been a major theme this election season, with each side pointing fingers at the other, from the presidential debate stage to local town halls. On Colorado’s western slope, two candidates running for Congress are divided on the issue and are nearly matched in campaign contributions as election day approaches.
carbon capture
Clean Coal: Fact Or Fiction?
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During the second Presidential debate, Donald Trump responded to a question about energy policy by saying, “There is a thing called clean coal. Coal will last for a thousand years in this country.” An Inside Energy follower named David asked us, “#CleanCoal: True or false prophecy?” We try to answer that question.
Future of Coal
The Collapse of Coal: A Video Documentary
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Inside Energy and The Allegheny Front teamed up to look at how the American coal industry is dealing with the latest crisis.
Alpha Natural Resources
Coal Clean Up, Texas Style
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As coal companies go bankrupt there is growing concern and uncertainty over who will pay to clean up those mines. But Texas has been there before. In 2014, the state’s largest coal company filed for bankruptcy with over $1 billion in outstanding cleanup costs. Now, more than two years later, this case is held up an example of what works.
Audio
Why North Dakota Coal Is The Last Man Standing
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The coal industry’s hurting from West Virginia to Wyoming. But there’s a holdout on the Northern Plains, where coal’s alive and well. North Dakota burns lignite, a different type of coal than the rest of the country. But even the industry there feels mounting pressure.
Audio
Coal Companies Have Mined An Area The Size Of NYC, Now They Have To Clean It Up
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Glance at a satellite image of northeast Wyoming, and you can’t miss the coal mines. Even zoomed out, the square-cornered grey blotches stand out—stretching north to south over more than 70 miles. But if all goes according to plan, someday, when the mining is done, those scars will disappear, erased from the landscape by intensive reclamation efforts. Coal companies are on the hook for that cleanup, but the industry’s recent collapse has raised questions about whether they will actually be able to meet those obligations.
Audio
Coal Dependent School Budgets In Crisis
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Cheaper natural gas has dealt a blow to the coal industry — and to Routt County school district. Before the district opened an all-day preschool in the small town of Yampa, there wasn’t an affordable day care program for this mostly working class community. When Peabody Energy, owner of Routt County’s Twentymile Mine, went into bankruptcy and failed to pay property taxes, it would have been the first thing to go. But the school district hasn’t let that happen.
Arch Coal
Life After Coal: One Miner’s Story
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Frank Thompson was one of almost 500 miners laid off in Wyoming in a single day earlier this year. Now, he’s trying to figure out life after mining—how to provide for his son, and how to bounce back.
Alpha Natural Resources
Judge Approves Alpha’s Bankruptcy Plan
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A judge in Richmond, VA approved coal giant Alpha Natural Resources’ plan to get out of bankruptcy Thursday. The approval went through, in part, because Alpha agreed to put up real financial assurances to cover future reclamation costs, which totaled hundreds of millions of dollars.
