COAL:
• Market forces are more responsible for coal’s decline than tougher emissions regulations, and the failure thus far of “clean coal” isn’t helping. (The New York Times)
• Arch Coal is to pay $2 million to settle pollution discharge violations at mines in five states, including Kentucky, Virginia and West Virginia. (Associated Press)
WIND: Landowners in the two North Carolina counties hosting Iberdrola’s wind energy farm for Amazon will reap financial dividends, as will the counties’ tax coffers. (North Carolina Coastal Review)
BROWNFIELD DEVELOPMENT: Local officials in Huntington, West Virginia are set to purchase and redevelop a 27-acre site that used to be a coal-shipping dock for a job-creating polymer center. (Huntington Herald-Dispatch)
CLEAN POWER PLAN: Might some states in the Southeast and elsewhere band together with a carbon cap and trade program to meet the new federal emissions targets? (Climate Progress)
CLIMATE: A new study assesses how much climate change and other factors are increasing the vulnerability of New Orleans, the Mississippi River delta and other population centers adjoining global river deltas. (The Washington Post)
OIL & GAS: Southwestern Energy Co., the leading operator in the Fayetteville Shale, is laying off 80 employees in Arkansas. (Arkansas Democrat-Gazette)
NORTH CAROLINA: The state Senate has voted to limit how it can respond to the federal target for emissions reductions in the Clean Power Plan. (WUNC Public Radio)
GEORGIA: Here’s how the final Clean Power Plan made it a lot easier for the Peachtree State to meet federal emissions targets. (Southern Environmental Law Center)
COMMENTARY:
• The Clean Power Plan positions the U.S. to speak with greater authority on both pollution and climate change, which it has has been silent on for too long. (The Virginian-Pilot)
• Why is North Carolina “hell bent” on discouraging renewable energy? (Greensboro News & Record)
• Tennessee Valley Authority ratepayers should not have to pay the cost of repairs to the leaking Boone Lake dam in Tennessee’s Tri-Cities region. (Kingsport Times News)