Environmental News For The Week Ending 16January 2019
This is a collection of interesting news articles about the environment and related topics published last week. This is usually a Tuesday evening regular post at
GEI (but can be posted at other times).
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Note: Because of the high volume of news regarding the coronavirus outbreak, that news has been published separately:
Summary:
New US Covid infections for the week ending January 16th were 8.5% below those of the week ending January 9th, so it appears that the incidence of new cases mat have peaked and is turning down, at least for the time being. One caveat to that, though, is that we don t know how many of the prior week s cases were from reports that had been delayed over the holidays. For a check on that, we can compare new cases from the week ending January 16th to those from the week ending December 19th, two weeks which sh
Source: Scott Olson/Getty Images News via Getty Images
During a recent wave of bankruptcies in the U.S. coal sector, Blackjewel LLC and its affiliates emerged as a vehicle for some of the least-wanted assets of larger producers looking to lean operations. The company is now trying to close the book on a bankruptcy reorganization that started in July 2019, causing uncertainty for many of its coal mining permits.
A hearing is scheduled Jan. 15 before the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of West Virginia to confirm the Blackjewel reorganization plan, which includes a request to abandon coal permits
By Jennifer Kocher and Mark Christensen, County 17
New Campbell County Attorney Mitch Damsky is making good on his promise to look into some of the more nefarious dealings by out-of-state coal companies, setting his sights first on former Blackjewel CEO Jeff Hoops.
On top of leaving the county on the hook for $16 million in ad valorem taxes after the company’s bankruptcy in 2019 that exposed the tangled – and alleged deceitful – underpinnings of his fossil fuel empire traversing 32 mines, several states and an undisclosed number of shell companies, Damsky said that Hoops left a lot of ruined lives in his wake as he and his family profited handsomely.
Judge Denies Blackjewel s Move to Liquidate - WOUB Public Media woub.org - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from woub.org Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
By Matt Hepler and Molly Moore
UPDATE, Jan. 11, 2020:
Following multiple objections to Blackjewel’s proposed Chapter 11 plan, Blackjewel filed an amended plan the morning of the December 17 hearing, striking the use of a reclamation trust. During the hearing, Judge Benjamin Kahn denied former Blackjewel CEO Jeff Hoops’ petition to move the bankruptcy proceeding from a Chapter 11 reorganization plan to a Chapter 7 liquidation plan, but did not rule on the proposed Chapter 11 plan, given the last-minute changes.
Blackjewel stated in a Dec. 23 filing that it was seeking to abandon all of its unsold coal permits, though exactly which permits remain unsold and untransferred remains unclear. Judge Kahn will again take up the issues of permit abandonment and the general bankruptcy plan during the January 15 court hearing.