The coal industry is asking the Trump administration for a bailout

Coal Execs Want a Handout, Too: The coal industry is asking the Trump administration for a bailout amid the coronavirus crisis, joining a growing list of industries seeking federal help as the virus sweeps across the country. The president of the National Mining Association sent a letter to the administration last week asking the government to pause or cut back the royalty fees for mines, a 50 percent cut in mine reclamation payments intended to clean up old mines, and to slash payments from the industry to pay for miners’ black lung care. “The coal industry is taking advantage of the country’s current circumstances to advocate for policies that are completely unrelated to the current crisis,” House Natural Resources Chairman Raúl M. Grijalva (D-AZ) and Rep. Matt Cartwright (D-PA) wrote in a response letter to Congressional leaders. “It is disappointing that the coal industry is advocating for policies that would not help the tens of thousands of sick, retired, and out-of-work miners that need immediate help and the communities that are still recovering from the legacy of environmental damage caused by the coal industry.” (AP, Salt Lake Tribune, E&E $)


Plague Meets Pestilence: Several East African countries are facing dual plagues as the coronavirus crisis reaches their borders and they continue to deal with one of the worst outbreaks of desert locusts in years. The UN Food and Agriculture Organization said last week the “unprecedented” locust disaster in Kenya, Ethiopia and Somalia, spurred after heavy cyclone rains made 2019 one of the region’s wettest years on record, is “extremely alarming” and poses the threat of massive food insecurity for millions of people. The decline of tourism in the area is already affecting local economies, while restrictions on flights due to the virus means that the cost of shipping pesticides has skyrocketed. Cyclones are often the originators of swarms — the extreme rainfall creates perfect breeding conditions — and in the past 10 years, there’s been an increase in the frequency of cyclones in the Indian Ocean. (CNBC, Bloomberg, InsideClimate News, The Guardian)



Prepping For Disaster During a (Different) Disaster: Officials are worried that shelters for people threatened by climate disasters may become coronavirus outbreak hubs as the United States prepares for possible hurricanes, wildfires, floods and other extreme weather in the coming months. The New York Times reports that the Federal Emergency Management Agency has instructed its employees to keep gatherings and in-office visits from disaster victims as sparse as possible, and has also paused trainings at several of its disaster facilities. The agency, states and nonprofits like the Red Cross are wrestling with the question of how to house future victims during a pandemic, where illness could easily spread among crowded shelters and other relief sites. “All of these activities that we do during and after disasters are activities that require a lot of people to be in close proximity to each other,” Samantha Montano, assistant professor of emergency management and disaster science at the University of Nebraska, Omaha, told the Times. “And that is the exact opposite of what we need to do to keep people safe from Covid-19.” (New York Times $)