"In 2012, an NAACP analysis found that Americans living within 3 miles of a coal plant are disproportionately low-income and disproportionately non-white."

"For the past five years, President Obama has denied the Republican charge that he is waging a war on coal. On Friday, with the Obama administration’s announcement that the Interior Department will halt new coal leases on public lands, Mr. Obama acknowledged that his climate change polices are hurting American miners and began offering ways to ease that economic harm."

"Too often toxic coal ash, a byproduct of coal-fired power, ends up in poor, minority communities. U.S. civil rights officials are launching a deeper look at federal environmental policy to find out why."

"The gloomier outlook for U.S. coal companies is raising questions about who will pay to clean up shuttered strip mines and open pits across coal country. With financial woes piling up for coal producers, environmental groups are warning that taxpayers could be on the hook for millions in restoration costs if mining companies can’t pick up the bill."

"The utility whose leaking natural gas well has driven thousands of Los Angeles residents from their homes acknowledged that it understated the number of times airborne levels of the cancer-causing chemical benzene have spiked during the crisis."

"The Obama administration will announce on Friday a halt to new coal mining leases on public lands as it considers an overhaul of the program that could lead to increased costs for energy companies and a slowdown in extraction, according to an administration official."

"Much has been made of the rapid rise of renewable energy in the US, but the policy workhorse behind it does not get nearly enough attention or credit."

"Global emissions of mercury from manmade sources fell 30 percent from 1990 to 2010, in part from decreasing use of coal, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) reported on Wednesday."

"Under pressure to devise a fix for its polluting diesel cars, the chief executive of Volkswagen, Matthias Müller, met for the first time with a senior government official in the United States to discuss the crisis that has engulfed the German carmaker since September."