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142 Stories
Pollution coming from a coal burning power plant.
February 13, 2020 | 7:26 PM

Wolf’s cap-and-trade proposal takes a step forward

The Democratic governor issued an executive order declaring Pennsylvania would join a regional agreement aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Not everyone is on board.

By Katie Meyer
A coal refuse pile from the early 20th century in Fredericktown, Pa. Photo: Reid R. Frazier
February 6, 2020 | 4:25 PM

Feds lower coal mine cleanup funding for Pa.

Declining coal production, end of one-time funding stream cause $20 million drop
By Reid Frazier
The coal plant in Shamokin Dam, Pa., is a local landmark that delivered electricity to this region for more than six decades. It closed in 2014. Next to it, a brand new natural gas power plant is under construction. The Sunbury Pipeline will feed Marcellus Shale gas into that plant.
January 10, 2020 | 5:00 AM

Study: Replacing coal plants with natural gas cut pollution, saved lives

Fracking pollution not included in study; could lessen health benefits, author says
By Reid Frazier
FILE PHOTO: In an Aug, 26, 2007 file photo, Robert Murray, center, chief executive of Murray Energy Corp., smiles while talking to Dave Canning, left, and Mike Glassom, right, two miners in charge of drilling bore holes into the Crandall Canyon M before a news conference northwest of Huntington, Utah.
November 29, 2019 | 6:27 AM

After the Murray Energy bankruptcy, what’s the future of coal?

By Reid Frazier
FILE PHOTO: In an Aug, 26, 2007 file photo, Robert Murray, center, chief executive of Murray Energy Corp., smiles while talking to Dave Canning, left, and Mike Glassom, right, two miners in charge of drilling bore holes into the Crandall Canyon M before a news conference northwest of Huntington, Utah.
November 7, 2019 | 10:53 AM

‘I’m fighting for … my company’: Despite bankruptcy and illness, Bob Murray remains a loud voice for coal

His close ties to President Trump gave him a voice in helping shape the administration’s approach to a coal industry that nevertheless remains in decline — and Murray Energy appears to be the latest casualty.

By Jeff Brady/NPR
Little Blue Run coal ash impoundment.
November 4, 2019 | 8:36 PM

Trump administration proposes rollbacks for two Obama-era coal pollution rules

Rules on coal ash ponds, wastewater from coal-fired power plants are targetted
By Reid Frazier
Equitrans Midstream's Swartz natural gas storage field lies in Greene County, in Western Pennsylvania.
October 30, 2019 | 2:25 PM

DEP, Equitrans agree to $650,000 settlement over storage field violations

State found inadequate documentation of wells drilled into storage field beneath a planned coal mine expansion
By Reid Frazier
In this May 24, 2012 photo, Route 61 is shown eroded and covered in graffiti in Centralia, Pa. Fifty years ago a fire at the town dump spread to a network of coal mines underneath hundreds of homes and business in the northeastern Pennsylvania borough of Centralia, eventually forcing the demolition of nearly every building.
June 6, 2019 | 6:00 AM

Is Centralia’s Graffiti Highway art or vandalism?

An abandoned stretch of road brings thousands of tourists from across the United States to Centralia, Columbia County. Known as “Graffiti Highway,” it is one of the last landmarks in the once-bustling mining town.

By Staff
Little Blue Run, the largest coal ash pond east of the Mississippi, along the Pennsylvania-West Virginia border.
Updated: March 5, 2019 | 1:53 pm

Report: Coal Ash contamination widespread in U.S., PA

One western Pa. site has arsenic 372 times the 'safe' level
By Reid Frazier
In this photo, from 2015 Joe Main, third from left, Assistant Secretary of Labor for Mine Safety and Health, and Patricia Silvey, center, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Operations with MSHA, speak with workers at the Gibson North mine, in Princeton, Ind. Federal mining regulators in December 2017 indicated they were reconsidering rules meant to protect underground miners from breathing coal and rock dust - the cause of black lung - and diesel exhaust, which can cause cancer.
February 12, 2019 | 5:16 AM

‘energy, explained’ podcast: The black lung disease epidemic that ‘shouldn’t have happened’

NPR reporter Howard Berkes joins StateImpact’s Reid Frazier to discuss regulatory failures — and the human cost, including to Pennsylvania miners — of a disease that has been described as ‘suffocating while alive.’

By Scott Blanchard
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