The Agenda: Inside the War on Coal

The war on coal is not just political rhetoric, or a paranoid fantasy concocted by rapacious polluters. It’s real and it’s relentless. Over the past five years, it has killed a coal-fired power plant every 10 days. It has quietly transformed the U.S. electric grid and the global climate debate.

The industry and its supporters use “war on coal” as shorthand for a ferocious assault by a hostile White House, but the real war on coal is not primarily an Obama war, or even a Washington war. It’s a guerrilla war.

New York Times: China Coal Production Falls in First 4 Months of Year

Coal production in China, the world's biggest coal-consuming nation, fell by 6 percent in the first four months of this year as the economy slows and the government makes a concerted push to reduce carbon emissions.

The National Development and Reform Commission said Tuesday that Chinese imports of coal also fell, plummeting 38 percent.

China uses roughly half of all of the world's coal production for power generation, heating and industry. That's made China the world's biggest emitter of carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas.

Bloomberg: Obama Scales Back Overly Ambitious Goals for Electric Car Use

President Barack Obama's long-standing goal to have a fully fuel-efficient government fleet and 1 million plug-in vehicles on the road will not be met.

With little fanfare, the president in March scaled back the ambitious goals laid out in 2009 that sought the million units on the road by 2015 as it became clear that technology and consumer interest were not keeping pace with his ideals. Sales and government purchases have failed to meet even lowered expectations, government sales data and U.S. sales data show.

ABC: Berkeley Lab Unveils New Solar Energy Facility

A Nobel Prize winner cut the ribbon Tuesday on a building named in his honor at the Lawrence Berkeley National Lab.

The new building consists of a high-tech facility where scientists are already making discoveries in the quest to replace fossil fuel with sunlight.

The Simons family just gave money toward a building named after Steven Chu, former United States Energy Secretary from 2009 to 2013 who once ran the Lawrence Berkeley National Lab.

Government Security News: DOE Announces $32 Million to Boost Solar Workforce Training

The Energy Department (DOE) has announced $32 million in funding to help train American workers for the solar energy workforce and to further drive down the cost of solar by developing innovative low-cost concentrating solar power collectors and increasing access to critical solar data.

The Department is making up to $12 million available to develop a diverse, well-trained solar support workforce, including professionals in the insurance, real estate and utility industries, who consumers rely on when they choose solar.