Energy & Fuel

"With little more than a promise, the Texas Railroad Commission is trusting a struggling coal industry to pay for the cost of cleaning up old mines."

"The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court struck down a controversial 'pipeline tax' that would have allowed electric utilities in the state to raise rates to pay for natural gas pipeline projects."

"This year, carbon dioxide emissions from natural gas associated with the energy sector will exceed those from coal for the first time since 1972, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration."

"Dozens of law professors banded together this week to assail a federal court's recent decision striking down the Obama administration's hydraulic fracturing rule."

"The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has not properly analyzed the environmental effects of its ethanol mandate, a watchdog report found Thursday.

The 2005 law creating the renewable fuel standard requires the EPA to write reports on the environmental impacts of the requirement to blend ethanol and other biofuels with gasoline, and to determine whether measures are needed to blunt the effects.

But the EPA’s Office of Inspector General (OIG) found the agency’s compliance with those provisions lacking."

"A groundswell of Native American activists has temporarily shut down construction on a major new oil pipeline with an ongoing protest that has drawn approximately 1,200 people to Cannon Ball, N.D."

"PROVIDENCE -- Construction of the first offshore wind farm in the nation is complete."

"Bankrupt coal company Peabody Energy won U.S. court approval on Wednesday for agreements with three states to partially cover $1.14 billion in potential environmental liabilities and for a bonus plan for its six top executives."

"The lifeboat keeping the coal industry afloat is getting a little lonely these days, as everyone abandons ship. According to a report released Tuesday by Climate Investigations Center, coal lobbying groups American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity, National Mining Association, and World Coal Associate have been hemorrhaging member companies in recent years."