Bloomberg: Coal Slump Sends Mining Giant Peabody Energy Into Bankruptcy

Peabody Energy Corp. filed for bankruptcy on Wednesday, the most powerful convulsion yet in an industry that’s still waiting for the coal market to bottom out.

The company is seeking to reorganize U.S. operations in federal court in its hometown of St. Louis, reducing an estimated $10.1 billion in debt, according to court filings. It’s the biggest U.S. corporate bankruptcy this year by liabilities, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

The outcome of the case may turn on what trajectory coal prices take over the course of the reorganization, with battles over environmental obligations and non-bankrupt Australian operations complicating matters, according to analysts and environmental activists.

Forbes: How Your Toilet Could Fuel The Future

The lavatory, the loo, or the dunny -- whatever you choose to call it, the flush toilet is a marvel of engineering that those of us lucky enough to have one often take for granted. But without them, and the sewers they connect to, cities would quickly become unlivable. Just to give you some context -- London sewers manage 1.25 billion kilograms of feces (equivalent to the weight of 2174 Airbus A380 jumbo jets) and around 6 billion liters of urine (enough to fill 2400 Olympic-sized swimming pools) every year.

But many researchers are looking at ways to "mine" this foul-smelling mountain, to use the energy stored in excreta to produce electricity.

Smart Energy Decisions: Ford Announces Massive Facilities Transformation

Ford Motor Co. on April 13 unveiled plans for a 10-year transformation of its more than 60-year-old Dearborn, Michigan facilities to co-locate 30,000 employees from 70 buildings into primarily two campus locations.

The new Ford buildings are expected to cut energy use in half, in addition to reducing water use, and will include a new zero-waste, zero-energy, zero-water "sustainability showcase" building, which Ford said will produce more energy than it consumes. That building will include geothermal heating and cooling and solar energy, and aims to meet Living Building Challenge standards, which Ford characterized in a news release as "the highest level of sustainability possible today."

Microgrid Knowledge: Exelon’s Next Big Stride Is a Connecticut Fuel Cell Microgrid

Exelon this week continued its vigorous push into the microgrid market, this time in Connecticut, where it began construction of a fuel cell microgrid.

The project is being developed by Exelon’s competitive subsidiary Constellation in partnership with fuel cell manufacturer Bloom Energy and the city of Hartford.

The partners are constructing the microgrid in Hartford’s Parkville neighborhood and expect to complete it by the third quarter of 2016.

InsideClimate News: Exxon Fights Subpoena in Widening Climate Probe

ExxonMobil Corp. sued to block a subpoena issued last month by the attorney general of the U.S. Virgin Islands seeking almost 40 years of documents on climate change.

In his demand for records, Virgin Islands Attorney General Claude Walker said Exxon may have violated the territory's anti-racketeering law, defrauding the government and consumers with the company's statements on climate change. It is the first time a prosecutor has cited racketeering law to probe Exxon over its longtime denial of climate change and its products' role in it, according to legal authorities.