On December 2nd a federal court in Asheville NC found the Duke Energy 800 MW Cliffside Coal Power Plant in violation of the Clean Air Act. This decision will force Duke energy to meet pollution control requirements for mercury regulation within the next 70 days. And if they fail to? The court could halt construction of the plant.

The court ruled in favor of conservation groups denying Duke's arguement that the plant qualified for a loophole in the law allowing them to avoid federal pollution regulation.

It's 2008. You're a tax-paying American. Do you know where your greenbacks are going?

Here's the dirt - er, coal dust.

Want to find out how much coal money your legislators are taking from an industry that has buried more than 1000 miles of streams, and destroyed more than 470 mountaintops in Central Appalachia alone?

FollowTheCoalMoney.org, a joint project of Oil Change International and Appalachian Voices, tracks the dirty coal money funding our Congress.

So, have you heard about Climate Camp? It's a name that's making news, and if you happen to be on the British side of the pond, you can join up activists from all walks of life to raise awareness about that dirty, dirty energy source known as coal. Greenpeace UK tells us:

Greetings from the Land Of Enchantment! It's been a pretty hot summer here in New Mexico. The federal government has just declared most of our counties drought disaster areas. Yes, we're definitely feeling the effects of global warming here in the American Southwest.

Yesterday marked the beginning of the G8 Summit in Hokkaido Japan and already climate negotiations are underway. At last years summit, leaders from the eight leading industrial nations pledged to consider a 2050 target for curbing world emissions.

The clean coal PR push is looking more and more hollow. In the NYT, Matt Wald paints a grim picture: cost overruns, technological uncertainty, waning support from utilities, and a mess of unanswered questions about everything from security to legal liability.

Coal is dirty. And we know that the industry's "clean coal" message is more public relation's spin than anything real.

The coal industry has invested millions in their public relations, advertising and marketing campaigns to promote the myth of “clean coal." Front groups like American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity are utilizing the momentum of the elections as a platform for their message.