coal industry
August 27, 2021 -
This Labor Day weekend, people will gather in West Virginia to mark the centennial of the Battle of Blair Mountain, the largest labor uprising in U.S. history. We look at what led to the bloody battle — when 10,000 Black, white, and immigrant coal miners joined together to fight for union rights against coal companies allied with corrupt law enforcement — and how it's being commemorated.
August 24, 2018 -
The plan to roll back Obama-era pollution regulations on coal-burning power plants would put vulnerable communities across the coal-dependent South disproportionately at risk for respiratory problems and premature death.
July 26, 2018 -
Vernon Haltom of West Virginia's Coal River Mountain Watch was among those who testified about coal's future before a congressional subcommittee this week. The testimony of Haltom — whose group is working to end mountaintop removal mining in Appalachia — details what boosting coal means for the communities where it's extracted.
December 14, 2017 -
Daniel Boyd's graphic novel "Carbon" features a villain modeled on former Massey Energy CEO Don Blankenship, who just completed a prison stint for his role in the deadly 2010 Upper Big Branch Mine disaster in West Virginia. We talked with Boyd about Blankenship's political aspirations and his state's troubled relationship with coal.
March 9, 2017 -
An immigration raid at a Mexican restaurant in West Virginia this week led to the arrest of three men who now face deportation. While some locals cheered the action as a solution to the state's economic crisis, facts show that's a delusion.
October 28, 2015 -
Peabody Energy, the nation's largest coal company, is seeking release from a pledge to pay into a health insurance fund. Will taxpayers have to pick up the tab?
October 23, 2015 -
An initiative to help states affected by the coal industry's decline has announced its first round of grants valued at $14.5 million. The bulk of the money is going to Kentucky and West Virginia, which have been most severely affected, and will support programs that provide digital media training, boost agricultural production, promote tourism and more.
