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Turkish Mine Rescue Hampered by Fire That Killed Over 200 People
Selcan Hacaoglu, Bloomberg
Turkish rescue workers struggled to rescue hundreds of people still trapped underground as fire and smoke in a coal shaft claimed more than 200 lives in what risks becoming the country’s worst mining disaster.
Turkey’s Energy Minister Taner Yildiz said 363 people were rescued, including 60 with injuries. At least 20 rescuers were hurt in the operation, four of them seriously. He declined to estimate how many people were still trapped after the fire broke out yesterday with 787 workers below ground.
“Our hopes are fading,” Yildiz told reporters in televised remarks at the site of the mine. “The fire is continuing.”…
(14 May 2014)
This tragedy is still unfolding. More here.
Coal mine collapse in West Virginia kills two miners
Annie Moore, Reuters
The West Virginia coal mine where a collapse this week killed two workers had "chronic compliance issues" and received numerous citations from inspectors last year, federal authorities said on Tuesday.
The Patriot Coal Corp’s Brody Mine No. 1 collapsed about 8:30 p.m. on Monday, trapping two miners, the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration said in a statement.
The miners, both from West Virginia, were identified as Eric Legg, 48, of Twilight and Gary Hensley, 46, of Chapmanville…
(14 May 2014)
IEA: Coal use is spiking climate mitigation costs
Staff, Euractiv
The global cost of pegging global warming to 2 degrees Celsius has risen by $8 trillion in the last two years, due to soaring coal use which has eclipsed the roll-out of renewable energies, according to a new International Energy Agency (IEA) report released today (12 May).
A top IEA official told EurActiv that there should be a halt to the commissioning of sub-critical coal plants with no potential for retroactive fitting of carbon, capture and storage technology (CCS) that may one day pipe CO2 emissions for storage in geological formations.
The Energy Technology Perspectives (ETP) 2014 study finds that the $44 trillion of clean energy investment needed by 2050 to prevent planetary over-heating, compared to $36 trillion in the previous ETP analysis…
See also:
The True Cost of Coal report – Greenpeace November 27, 2008
Summary: Traditionally considered the cheapest fuel around, the market price for coal ignores its most significant impacts. These so-called "external costs" manifests themselves as damages such as respiratory diseases, mining accidents, acid rain, smog pollution, reduced agricultural yields and climate change.The harm caused by mining and burning coal is not reflected in its price per tonne or its costs for a kWh of electricity, but the world at large is nevertheless paying for it. This report seeks to answer the question: just how much are we paying?
Energy Reality campaign: Coal – Post Carbon Institute, 2013
Coal continues to dominate global carbon emissions – Scientific American, November 2013
Coal teaser image via shutterstock.
