Michael Virtanen

Associated Press

In this June 9, 2010 file photo, a worker uses a suction hose to remove oil washed ashore from the Deepwater Horizon spill, in Belle Terre, La. The Trump administration has halted an independent scientific study of offshore oil inspections by the federal safety agency created after the 2010 spill in the Gulf of Mexico. The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine was told to cease review of the inspection program conducted by the federal Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement. Established following the massive BP spill, the bureau was assigned the role of improving offshore safety inspections and federal oversight.

White House Stops Study of Offshore Oil Inspections

The study was created after the 2010 spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

Energy Secretary Rick Perry, right, talks with Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., left, and Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va. outside the coal-burning Longview Power Plant in Maidsville, W.Va., Thursday, July 6, 2017.

Perry: Coal Plants Key to Country's Future

U.S. Energy Secretary Rick Perry suggested that energy supply will spark demand.

Low Incomes Plague Resource-Rich State

It has historically been one of the poorest states, the per capita personal income is nearly $11,000 below the national average.

In this Nov. 15, 2016 photo, a mechanized shovel loads coal from an 80-feet thick seam into a haul truck at Cloud Peak Energy's Spring Creek mine near Decker, Mont. Coal from the mine is shipped to power plants for generating electricity. President-elect Donald Trump's vow to revive coal country is met with measured hope in Appalachia and even out West, where mines stand to gain the most.

Coal Revival Plan Met with Measured Hope

Wearing the miner's telltale blue pants with reflective strips on the legs, Roger Prater would be heading underground that night, had he not been laid off for 20 months.

Bird Pixabay 56d9a3f695729

Nuclear Plant Shutdown Caused by Bird Poop?

In a report to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission last month, the New Orleans-based company said the automatic reactor shutdown was apparently from bird excrement that caused an electric arc between wires on a feeder line at a transmission tower.