As U.S. coal’s comedown continues, our latest Issue Backgrounder takes a close look at the factors behind the industry’s decline and finds a combination of economics, competition and shifting global markets, along with aging technology, politics and environmental pushback. What’s in store for coal in 2020?
"In 1849, Harriet Tubman escaped from the Eastern Shore farm where she was enslaved. Over the next several years, she would return 13 times, rescuing more than 70 enslaved relatives and friends, ... She has become a hero, with two national parks established in her honor, ... . But time has not been as kind to the lands that Tubman left behind, or the descendants of the first free African-American communities that called them home."
"The National Park Service announced Monday it is withdrawing a proposal that could have made protesters repay the federal government for the cost of security at demonstrations."
"Look up the next time you’re in a park — any park — in the Mid-Atlantic. You’re likely to see vines climbing toward the treetops. These invasive vines can be deadly — not just to the trees they are overtaking, but to the larger ecosystem."
"While the Bureau of Land Management is adopting more wild horses and burros than ever, BLM acting chief William Perry Pendley says it will take many years and billions of dollars to reduce growing herds on federal rangelands to sustainable levels."
"In a move that is raising questions about the future of Yosemite National Park, the National Park Service announced Wednesday that it was reassigning park Supt. Mike Reynolds, a 34-year park service veteran who grew up in Yosemite."
"Native American leaders from New Mexico are opposing plans that call for storing in the desert Southwest tons of spent nuclear fuel from power plants around the U.S."
"Environmental group Earthworks wants an investigation into possible insider trading by an investor and others involved in EPA's actions surrounding the proposed Pebble Mine in Alaska, according to a formal complaint filed yesterday with the Securities and Exchange Commission, New Jersey Bureau of Securities and Financial Industry Regulatory Authority."
"Federal land-management agencies tallied at least 360 incidents of threats and assaults against their employees in the four-year period ending in 2017, according to a government watchdog."
"Nearly two months ago, Interior Secretary David Bernhardt signed a secretarial order declaring that electronic bicycles “shall be allowed” in any area on federal land where regular bikes can ride. But even as top officials are pressing ahead to institute the policy, no one knows yet exactly what that means."
Advertisement 
