Energy & Environment

West Virginia University will host an energy forum that features U.S. Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz.

WVU says the Mid-Atlantic Region Energy Innovation Forum on Monday will draw input from political, industry, academic and other leaders.

Dominion's natural gas and interstate transmission subsidiaries have locked out about 915 union employees in six states over what the company says is the union's refusal to have its members vote on a tentative four-year contract.

Dominion says in a news release that the lockout was effective Wednesday for United Gas Workers Union Local 69 members working at Dominion Hope and Dominion Transmission in Ohio, Maryland, New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia and West Virginia.

U.S. Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz is scheduled to visit a West Virginia coal-fired power plant alongside congressional leaders.

Longview Power says Moniz is expected to tour the plant near Morgantown on Monday. U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin and Rep. David McKinley are slated to join.

Coal developers working against the trend of mine closures and bankruptcies say a $90 million investment will enable them to open two new mines in West Virginia and Virginia next year.

The mines would extract metallurgical coal, the type used for steel production. Most metallurgical coal in the U.S. is exported to other countries.

The U.S. Forest Service said it is “highly concerned” about the potential impact a proposed natural gas pipeline could have on a wild brook trout stream in Bath County, Va.

Residents in the Proctor area of West Virginia are suing one of the nation's largest chlorine producers after a cloud of chlorine gas leaked from a railcar inside a company chemical plant.

Attorney Jim Bordas says Saturday's chlorine leak at the Axiall Corp. plant forced residents from their homes and damaged their properties. The National Transportation Safety Board said Thursday that about 17,000 gallons of chlorine leaked out.

A Kanawha County official says some residents have been illegally dumping flood debris.

The Charleston Gazette-Mail reports the information comes less than a week after a flood debris site at the Clendenin park and ride closed.

Updated: Wednesday, August 31, 2016 at 4:35 p.m.

State environmental officials say a failed gasket could have been the cause of a chemical release at the ICL Chemical Plant in Mason County Wednesday afternoon. 

Officials are investigating the cause of a chlorine leak at a chemical plant near Proctor, West Virginia.

The Intelligencer reports that 33,000 gallons of liquid chlorine leaked Saturday from a railcar inside Axiall Corp.'s Natrium chemical plant. The resulting cloud forced hundreds of people from homes in the area.

A West Virginia-based environmental group is naming a new leader to replace its executive director, who is retiring.

The Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition announced the departure of Janet Keating and the new role for Natalie Thompson on Monday.

Sen. Joe Manchin says U.S. Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz is accepting his offer to visit his coal-dependent home state of West Virginia.

The West Virginia Democrat says Moniz agreed to visit the Mountain State in September. Additional details for the trip have not been released yet.

West Virginia regulators are sticking with their proposal to change the way water-quality standards are calculated.

The Charleston Gazette-Mail reports that a document made public Friday insists the decision "does not automatically" translate into an increase in the amount of cancer-causing chemicals allowed to be discharged into state rivers and streams.

Two people were transported to hospitals for inhalation injuries, others were treated at the site of a reported chlorine leak in Marshall County. Communities in the area were evacuated. Officials from Axiall Corporation say a rail tanker car loaded with liquid chlorine developed a leak Saturday morning inside the company's facility near Proctor, W.Va. 

West Virginia environmental regulators are ordering a company to stop mining permanently at a surface coal mine near Kanawha State Forest.

Keystone Industries LLC signed the consent order with the Department of Environmental Protection last month to permanently halt Kanawha County mining operations near Marmet.