Australia for the first time has rejected a coal mining application based on environmental law, with the government minister citing the open-pit mine's potential harm to the nearby Great Barrier Reef.
Coal mining may be on hold in Alberta, but clear-cut logging will increase in a region where the downstream agriculture industry can ill afford to damage its watershed.
New Alberta government research has found windblown dust from mountaintop removal coal mines has polluted a pristine alpine lake to the point where its waters are as contaminated as lakes downwind from the oilsands.
First Nations and environmentalists say they are angry the federal and British Columbia governments continue to stonewall American requests for a joint investigation of cross-border contamination from coal mining as meetings of the panel that mediates such issues wrap up.
The front lawn of Lydia Larce’s home is strewn with debris: Remnants of cabinets and chunks of pink shower marble lie between dumpsters. She lives in a FEMA trailer out back, her home in shambles more than a year after Hurricane Laura tore through Lake Charles.
Official plans call for boosting coal production capacity by 300 million tons this year, according to news reports. That is equal to 7% of last year’s output of 4.1 billion tons, which was an increase of 5.7% over 2020.
Montem Resources is one of the companies considering the Alberta government's decision last month to extend a pause on coal development on the summits and eastern slopes of the Rockies.
"Environment Canada got pushback," said Bill Donahue, an environmental scientific consultant and former head of monitoring for the Alberta government. "It dramatically reduced the proposed standards in terms of their stringency."
