Environment

A federal court of appeals has ruled that the Environmental Protection Agency can regulate carbon emissions from vehicles and power plants. The court also upheld the agency’s scientific determination that greenhouse gases pose a danger to human health.

Earlier this month,  I wrote about Sonia McElroy. McElroy was vying for a seat on the board of Shelby Energy--an electricity cooperative that serves parts of Shelby, Trimble, Henry and Carroll counties. This was the first contested election in the co-op's history. It was being run according to the bylaws, but McElroy raised questions about whether the rules were fair and biased in favor of incumbents.

Unlike its Appalachian neighbors, Kentucky has no large or small-scale wind farms. And a study says that’s only partly due to the state’s low wind potential.

A Pike County miner has died following an accident at the McCoy Elkhorn Coal Corporation's Mine No. 23 in Kimper. From the Kentucky Office of Mine Safety and Licensing:

Preliminary reports indicate 33-year-old Farley Sargent was laying track when a rib roll occurred. A rib roll is when a portion of the coal pillar wall falls into the corridor.

Air pollution monitors in Louisville registered high levels of ozone this weekend, as predicted.

The area ranked a 114 on the Air Quality Scale--where anywhere from 101-150 indicates air that's unhealthy for sensitive groups. Ozone measured at 81 parts per billion--and the federal standard is 75 parts per billion.

So far, the metro area has exceeded ozone standards four times this summer.

There's not a lot of natural gas drilling in Kentucky, but nearby West Virginia, Ohio and Pennsylvania have become hotbeds as the Marcellus Shale is tapped.

So far this year, there have been ten days when air quality is forecasted to be bad in the Louisville area, and as the summer wears on there will be many more. The weather plays a big part in these days of unhealthy air, and pollution from industries contributes, too. But individual actions can also affect the air.

Louisville’s Air Pollution Control District has called an Air Quality Alert for this weekend.

The alerts this weekend are the ninth and tenth times this year the Air Pollution Control District has forecasted that ozone levels will be unhealthy for sensitive groups. But the alerts are forecasts—and the actual air quality has only been unhealthy twice so far.

District spokesman Tom Nord says a mix of pollution and weather contribute to the poor air.