April, 13 2016, 09:45am EDT
"The Biggest Coal Giant has Fallen": Peabody's Bankruptcy Sends Clearest Signal of Coal Industry's Deep Decline
Sierra Club reacts to Peabody Energy’s bankruptcy, urges former energy giant to keep its obligations to workers, clean up toxic mines
WASHINGTON
In the latest and possibly most significant news about the global coal industry's continuing decline, Peabody Energy, Inc., the world's largest private-sector coal company, announced that it has filed for bankruptcy today. A sustained downturn in both domestic and international coal markets had left the company saddled with enormous debts and no realistic hope of paying them back, leading the company to seek protection from its creditors.
Public interest organizations, including the Sierra Club, plan to keep a close eye on Peabody's bankruptcy proceedings, since many coal companies have used bankruptcy to shed responsibilities to workers, retirees, and local communities near mines. Due to reckless investments and bloated CEO salaries, company has more than $2 billion in mine cleanup liabilities, nearly $1.5 billion of which are unfunded, including nearly $900 million in Wyoming alone.
Peabody, once regarded as a titan in the American energy industry, is now just the latest in a string of at least 50 coal industry bankruptcies since 2012. Just two months ago Arch Coal, the nation's second largest coal producer, filed for Chapter 11 protection; and Alpha Natural Resources, the fourth largest coal producer in the US, declared itself insolvent last August.
In response, Mary Anne Hitt, Director of Sierra Club's Beyond Coal Campaign, released the following statement:
"The biggest coal giant has fallen, and Peabody Energy's bankruptcy should serve as a wake-up call to anyone promising that coal's glory days will return. As Peabody grapples with the reality that the world is turning away from coal, it's essential that it doesn't turn away from its obligations to workers, communities, and the environment.
"Unfortunately, Peabody has a history of spinning off its responsibilities into smaller companies that seem built to fail, while taxpayers are left holding the bag. We need to make sure the former energy giant is held accountable for every promise it's made and that its decline leaves its commitments in the best shape possible. In addition to Peabody doing its part, we also need Congress to do theirs -- which means investing more federal dollars in economic redevelopment and diversification in coal communities, shore up health care and pension plans for coal workers and their families, and ensure toxic mining sites are cleaned up and reclaimed.
"As we transition to the clean energy economy, it's essential that we don't forget the immense contributions that coal communities have made to America and that we secure every family's livelihood as we transition to new economic opportunities."
The Sierra Club is the most enduring and influential grassroots environmental organization in the United States. We amplify the power of our 3.8 million members and supporters to defend everyone's right to a healthy world.
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Judge Releases Mohsen Mahdawi, Columbia Student Trump Targeted for Deportation
"I am saying it clear and loud," declared Mahdawi. "To President Trump and his Cabinet: I am not afraid of you."
Apr 30, 2025
This is a breaking story… Please check back for possible updates...
Mohsen Mahdawi, a Palestinian student targeted for deportation by the Trump administration because he participated in anti-genocide protests at Columbia University, was released on bail Wednesday following an order from Vermont-based U.S. District Judge Geoffrey Crawford.
Politicoreported that upon his release, Mahdawi shared a message for President Donald Trump outside the courthouse.
"I am saying it clear and loud," Mahdawi declared. "To President Trump and his Cabinet: I am not afraid of you."
When Mahdawi, a green-card holder, arrived at a Colchester, Vermont immigration office to complete the process of becoming a U.S. citizen earlier this month, he was arrested by masked, hooded federal agents and put in an unmarked vehicle.
Mahdawi has been held at the Northwest State Correctional Facility in St. Albans since U.S. District Judge William Sessions III blocked the Trump administration's attempt to send him to a detention facility in Louisiana, like other student organizers.
His legal team—including attorneys with the ACLU and Creating Law Enforcement Accountability & Responsibility (CLEAR)—is arguing in court that Mahdawi's detention violates his constitutional rights, including free speech and due process.
"Nobody should fear detention for exercising their rights under the First Amendment. We are delighted that the court recognized that Mohsen is not a flight risk and that he should be released while his case proceeds," said Nathan Freed Wessler, deputy director of the ACLU's Speech, Privacy, and Technology Project, in a Wednesday statement.
CLEAR staff attorney Shezza Abboushi Dallal also welcomed the development: "The court's order to free Mohsen today is a victory for Mohsen, in his just pursuit of continued advocacy for Palestinian lives, and it is a victory for all people in this country invested in their ability to dissent and speak and protest for causes they are morally drawn to. We will continue our legal battle for Mohsen until his constitutional rights are fully vindicated."
After confirming Mahdawi's release, Congresswoman Becca Balint (D-Vt.) said on social media that she was "so relieved," adding: "This is a huge win but the fight is far from over. It's going to take all of us to demand due process for everyone."
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'Literal Fascism': MAGA Rally Crowd Goes Wild as Trump Airs Migrant Arrest Propaganda
At a Michigan rally, President Donald Trump's supporters cheered and chanted "USA" in response to a video celebrating the deportation and imprisonment of migrants without due process.
Apr 30, 2025
U.S. President Donald Trump used a campaign-style rally in Michigan late Tuesday to display a propaganda video glorifying the deportation and offshore imprisonment of migrants without due process, a presentation that drew enthusiastic cheers and "USA" chants from the president's supporters.
The video shows handcuffed migrants being forced off a bus at a notorious El Salvador mega-prison and having their heads shaved by masked guards. The prison, the Centro de Confinamiento del Terrorismo, was where unlawfully deported Maryland resident Kilmar Abrego Garcia was initially held.
"We are delivering mass deportation, and it's happening very fast, and the worst of the worst are being sent to a no-nonsense prison in El Salvador," Trump declared, despite the lack of evidence that the hundreds of migrants his administration deported to El Salvador have criminal records or gang ties.
"Watch this. Take a look,” Trump said before the video began playing on a big screen, eliciting loud cheers from the audience.
at his rally in Michigan, Trump plays a propaganda video of prisoners having their heads shaved at the Gulag in El Salvador to big cheers from the crowd and "U-S-A!" chants pic.twitter.com/Ij8UvD8ubi
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) April 29, 2025
Brendan Nyhan, a political scientist at Dartmouth College, called the display at Trump's rally "literal fascism."
The rally video was part of an aggressive White House public relations campaign to tout its lawless mass arrest and deportation effort amid survey data showing that a majority of Americans believe Trump has "gone too far" with his attacks on undocumented immigrants.
But according to a CNNpoll released Wednesday, just 10% of Trump supporters think the president has overstepped with his mass deportation campaign and 63% believe he "has not gone far enough," indicating broad support from Trump's base for the White House's assault on fundamental constitutional rights.
"We cannot allow a handful of communist, radical-left judges to obstruct the enforcement of our laws and assume the duties that belong solely to the president of the United States," Trump declared during Tuesday's rally. "Nothing will stop me in the mission to keep America safe again."
In an ABCinterview that aired Tuesday, Trump acknowledged that he has the power to facilitate Abrego Garcia's return from El Salvador, as he's been ordered to do by the U.S. Supreme Court.
"If he were the gentleman that you say he is, I would do that. But he's not," Trump said, falsely claiming that Abrego Garcia has MS-13 tattooed on his knuckles.
The president appears to believe that an image with the characters "M-S-1-3" superimposed over Abrego Garcia's actual tattoos is real. When ABC's Terry Moran tried to explain that the image was photoshopped, Trump expressed disbelief and complained, "You're not being very nice."
In a letter to Trump on Tuesday, Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.)—who met with Abrego Garcia in El Salvador earlier this month and has worked to secure his release—wrote that it is "shameful" that the White House continues to claim without evidence that the wrongly deported man is a gang member.
"It is also dangerous for you to suggest that we cannot fight gang violence without trampling over constitutional rights," Van Hollen wrote. "You are engaged in gross violations of the Constitution and due process rights."
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Key Republican's $500 Billion 'Red Line' for Medicaid Cuts Slammed as Cruel Farce
"If your 'red line' is taking away healthcare from millions of people, then you don't have a red line."
Apr 30, 2025
A key House Republican said Tuesday that he would be unwilling to accept more than $500 billion in Medicaid cuts in the GOP's emerging reconciliation package, a "red line" that drew swift mockery and condemnation from healthcare campaigners.
Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.), who is seen as a critical swing vote in the narrowly controlled Republican House, toldPolitico that his ceiling for Medicaid cuts over the next decade is a half-trillion dollars—a message he has privately delivered to President Donald Trump's White House.
Anthony Wright, executive director of Families USA, said in a statement Tuesday that a $500 billion cut to Medicaid "is not at all moderate, but massive—the biggest cut in the history of Medicaid, one that would force millions of Americans to lose coverage."
"Slashing Medicaid by hundreds of billions of dollars would force states like Nebraska to make the unholy choice to drop people from coverage, cut benefits, and/or cut payments to the providers we all rely on, or otherwise raise taxes," said Wright. "Medicaid cuts would be another wrecking ball to the health system and to the economy."
The Century Foundation has estimated that cutting federal Medicaid funding by $500 billion over a 10-year period would strip health coverage from more than 18 million children and more than 2 million adults with disabilities.
"If your 'red line' is taking away healthcare from millions of people, then you don't have a red line," said Kobie Christian, a spokesperson for the advocacy coalition Unrig Our Economy.
"Not one dollar should be cut from Medicaid to pay for one dollar of tax breaks for the rich."
Bacon also made clear Tuesday that he would support draconian changes to Medicaid that have been tried with disastrous results at the state level.
"They should be seeking the skill sets for better jobs," Bacon said in support of adding work requirements to Medicaid, despite an abundance of evidence showing that such mandates succeed only at booting people from the program, not increasing employment. (Most Medicaid recipients who are able to work already do.)
Brad Woodhouse, president of Protect Our Care, said in a statement that "as the GOP drafts their devastating budget, one thing remains true: Republicans in Congress want to make the largest Medicaid cuts in history to fund tax breaks for the wealthiest Americans."
"Whether it's a trillion dollars, half a trillion, or hundreds of billions in Medicaid cuts, no member of Congress can justify ripping healthcare away from some of the most vulnerable Americans to give tax breaks to the wealthy," said Woodhouse. "Not one dollar should be cut from Medicaid to pay for one dollar of tax breaks for the rich."
The "moderate" $500 billion Medicaid cut being pitched here would finance a $500 billion tax cut for millionaire business owners and the heirs of estates worth over $28 million per couple. There is nothing moderate about cutting low-income Americans' health care to pay for tax cuts for the rich.
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— Brendan Duke (@brendanvduke.bsky.social) April 29, 2025 at 4:14 PM
Congressional Republicans have previously backed budget plans that would allow $880 billion in Medicaid cuts over the next decade, as well as massive reductions in spending on federal nutrition assistance.
But the GOP push for Medicaid cuts to pay for another round of tax breaks that would largely benefit the wealthy has sparked outrage nationwide, and it appears some Republicans are feeling the pressure from constituents.
Rep. David Valadao (R-Calif.), whose district has the highest percentage of Medicaid recipients in the House GOP conference, raised concerns about deep Medicaid cuts in an interview with Politico on Tuesday.
But like Bacon, Valadao said he was open to proposals that experts say would bring disastrous consequences for Medicaid recipients. Politico noted that the California Republican "is leaving the door open to capping the overall funding for certain beneficiaries in the 41 states that have expanded Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act."
Edwin Park, a research professor at the Georgetown University McCourt School of Public Policy's Center for Children and Families, warned earlier this week that the per-capita funding cap Republicans are considering should "be viewed as just another proposal to sharply shift expansion costs to states by lowering the effective expansion matching rates, with the intent of undermining and eventually repealing the Medicaid expansion."
"That, in turn, would take away coverage from nearly 21 million low-income parents, people with disabilities, near-elderly adults, and others," Park wrote. "It would also have significant adverse effects on the children of expansion adults: Research shows that the Medicaid expansion increases enrollment among eligible children and therefore reduces the number of uninsured children."
"And, of course, it would also deter the 10 remaining non-expansion states from taking up the expansion in the future," he added.
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