Energy & Environment

The Trump administration has rejected a coal industry push to win a rarely used emergency order protecting coal-fired power plants, a decision contrary to what one coal executive said the president personally promised him.

The Energy Department says it considered issuing the order sought by companies seeking relief for plants it says are overburdened by environmental regulations and market stresses. But the department ultimately ruled it was unnecessary, and the White House agreed, a spokeswoman said.

Students in at least one West Virginia county will be allowed to get out of school early to watch next week's solar eclipse.

The Herald-Dispatch reports that Cabell County Schools Superintendent Ryan Saxe said at a Board of Education meeting Tuesday that parents will be allowed to pick up students up to one hour early next Monday as an excused absence. The county's school system will operate on a regular schedule that day.

Free solar eclipse viewing glasses and free moon pies are being offered to people participating in Marshall University's viewing event on Aug. 21.

A department store is reopening next month at a West Virginia shopping center that was marooned and shuttered after flooding last summer washed away an access bridge.

A year after flooding severely damaged the Greenbrier River Trail in West Virginia, all 78 miles of it has reopened.

A federal judge has refused to dismiss a defamation suit against The New York Times by Murray Energy Corp. over an April editorial that described the coal mining company as "a serial violator" of federal health and safety rules.

West Virginia wildlife officials say 60 elk will come to the state next year through a partnership with their counterparts in Arizona.

The Arizona Game and Fish Commission has approved capture of five dozen elk to be transported east as part of West Virginia's ongoing elk restoration project.

A raft of garbage covers a swath of the Monongahela River in northern West Virginia, a dozen miles upstream from the drinking water intake for 100,000 people.

Old tires, damaged toys, algae, oil drums, sticks and other refuse have crowded against the dam for so long that weeds sprout from them. Stuck against the spillway, the trash spans a football field's length from one bank to the other and spreads almost 30 yards upstream.

Forty years ago, President Jimmy Carter signed a law that literally changed the face of Appalachia.

The Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act of 1977 (SMCRA) was intended to replace a state-to-state patchwork of rules for strip-mining with a uniform federal standard. Four decades later, however, environmentalists say the law has fallen far short of its potential.

“Massive destruction, massive explosives -- and only 300 feet away from someone’s home,” said Thom Kay, legislative associate at Appalachian Voices. “What is SMCRA doing if that’s still allowed?”

The Senate has approved two Republicans nominated by President Donald Trump to serve on the federal commission that oversees the nation’s power grid and natural gas pipelines.

Senators’ unanimous votes Thursday approving Senate aide Neil Chatterjee and Pennsylvania utility regulator Robert Powelson restore a voting quorum on the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.

Federal funds are available for economic development projects in the state. The money is meant to help communities left with mining impacts from activity before 1977.

West Virginia environmental officials have ordered a halt to construction of a concrete plant in northern West Virginia, saying agency inspectors found violations in May, June and July from storm water runoff.

An 80-year-old maintenance and repair shop in West Virginia is closing its doors due to struggles in the coal and manufacturing industries.

A lawsuit filed Thursday is challenging the company that wants to build a 300-mile pipeline through West Virginia and Virginia, and the federal agency that oversees it.

West Virginia wildlife authorities say an Eastern Milksnake in Kanawha County has tested positive for snake fungal disease in the first contemporary occurrence in the state.

Kevin Oxenrider, Division of Natural Resources wildlife biologist, says dramatic declines in snake populations, particularly rattlesnakes farther north, have been linked to the disease.

President Donald Trump brought Washington politics to West Virginia Monday, speaking to a crowd of about 40,000 boy scouts and volunteers at the Summit Bechtel Reserve in Glen Jean for the 2017 Boy Scouts of America National Jamboree. 

Trump is the eigth president to attend a jamboree, which occurs every four years, and the first to attend the event since it found a permanent home in West Virginia, in 2013. 

West Virginia environmental regulators are accepting public comment on a draft list of the state's impaired streams and lakes.

The state Department of Environmental Protection is required to update its list of impaired waters every two years. Such waterways failed to meet state water quality standards.

A draft list can be viewed on the agency's website.

The agency is accepting public comments through Aug. 21.

The Atlantic Coast Pipeline intended to carry natural gas across West Virginia, Virginia and North Carolina would have some adverse environmental effects, including impacts on water resources, forest and other habitats, but most could be reduced to insignificant levels, an assessment by federal regulators found.