Last week had some interesting developments in the coal industry.

Most recent was the decision by Kentucky Gov. Beshear that Peabody Energy Corp. give back a $400,000 grant meant to study the feasibility of bringing a liquid coal plant to the state because the corporation had made no progress on it, nor had they submitted any invoices about how they were spending the money.

This is good news because liquid coal is actually worse than regular coal when it comes to global warming emissions. You'd think that news might prevent companies from wanting to build liquid coal plants, but there are some planned and you can check out where they are using our coal plant tracker web site.

The older news was environmental analyst Lester Brown (head of the Earth Policy Institute) saying that "The United States should leave its estimated 200 years' supply of coal in the ground and invest in wind farms and solar technology for its power-generating needs."

It's an excellent article about the movement against coal. Yes, coal plants are still planned and much work is still needed to stop the coal rush, but progress is being made.