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Speakers at the American Coal Council’s annual coal-trading conference said a slowdown in global economic growth, rising trade tensions, and domestic political uncertainty imperil recent gains in U.S. coal exports.

“Competition from increasingly abundant and affordable natural gas and renewable energy” will drive coal-plant retirements in 2018 as market forces prevail and as further coal-consumption declines are seen in 2019.

Xcel Energy, which has 3.6 million customers in eight states, becomes “the first major U.S. utility to pledge to go completely carbon-free” by announcing plans to go entirely to renewables.

A long-time coal-trading company in Ohio has called for state approval of a Highland County utility-scale solar farm that would create jobs in a region beleaguered the decline of coal. 

As pollution from coal-fired plants continues to taint community water supplies after officials “failed for decades to hold corporations accountable,” the governor-elect must now force utilities to pay for cleanup.

In a state once largely reliant on coal-fired electricity generation, ExxonMobil has signed a 12-year deal for solar and wind power to expand drilling its operations in the Permian Basin.

As energy policies continue to evolve, “The federal government will need to play a role, but so too will states, tribes, local governments, universities, professional societies, and private sector firms.”

A criminal trial has shed light on ties between Birmingham-based Drummond, “an influential coal firm seeking to skirt financial responsibility,” and government officials who have opposed more federal cleanup attention.

Citing recently discovered evidence, survivors of miners killed in the 1968 Farmington Mine Disaster are suing Murray Energy after company attorneys argued it is too late to press for accountability.

A prosecutor in Knott County, Ky., has resorted to garnishment proceedings to extract more than $2 million in back taxes sorely needed for public school operations and local government services.