Peabody is the latest in a string of major coal companies filing for bankruptcy. And, communities that have long been impacted by extraction activity are using this the opportunity to call for a just transition away from coal economies.
What actions can we take to protect ourselves, our families, and our communities from the devastating effects of climate change?
Who is Bob Murray, soon to own more coal reserves in Illinois than anyone, including rivals Peabody Energy and Chris Cline?
Earth to America … Is President Obama really serious about taking meaningful action to avert the worst effects of climate change?
Watch the Impacts of Coal Mining in Illinois Click the above image or this link for the slide show. Photos […]
A bill before the Illinois House that would have ended a mandate for the state to prepare and provide coal education materials for kids met sharp resistance from lawmakers and the coal industry, who claimed environmentalists were waging a “war on coal”.
Did you know that Illinois state law currently requires the development of a coal education program for our state’s children?
While much of the country is talking about fracking, corporations such as Peabody Coal and Foresight Reserves LP are quietly extracting coal from America’s Heartland. Strip mining, room and pillar and longwall mining for coal are destroying some of the best agricultural farmland in the world, displacing once cohesive farming communities, and polluting clean water across the Illinois coal basin, which includes the state of Illinois and portions of Indiana and Kentucky.
At the other end of the coal cycle, burning coal is contributing to toxic coal ash dumps, which threatening the health and safety of nearby residents, and destroying our climate.
A report released today by the Center for Tax and Budget Accountability and Downstream Strategies estimates that in the 2011 Fiscal Year, the coal industry drained nearly $20 million from the Illinois state budget in subsidies and expenditures related to supporting the coal industry. The report, The Impact of Coal on the Illinois State Budget, was commissioned by the Sierra Club, Prairie Rivers Network, Faith in Place, and Eco-Justice Collaborative.
Working with the Heartland Coalfield Alliance, EJC sends delegations of local activists to learn about the impact of coal mining in central and southern Illinois, which includes destruction of farmland, natural areas, and entire communities, and groundwater pollution from coal slurry and unlined pools of coal ash and sludge.
Like tar sands oil, much of Illinois’s high-sulfur coal is being exported to developing countries – which Richart argues should put to rest the argument that “all-of-the-above” development is needed for “energy independence.”
