"Coal's Slipping Grip: New England, Virtually Coal-Free, Leads the Way"

"Tiffany Mellers jogs behind her two daughters as they pedal their bikes along a ribbon of packed sand along Long Island Sound. “They are good girls,” Mellers said. “They deserve a healthy life.” Behind them, a 500-foot tall candy-stripe smokestack, a fixture of Bridgeport’s waterfront for nearly five decades, rises in the distance. A third generation of residents is now growing up in its shadow. But today this old giant is merely a vestige of this region’s coal-fired past. New England is virtually coal-free."

Lindsey Konkel reports for Environmental Health News and The Daily Climate in the first of a two-part series, with photos by Douglas Healey, July 1, 2013.

SEE ALSO:

"Obama Reignites Warnings To Plan for Coal’s Decline" (Charleston Gazette)

"For East Texas Coal Belt, Dread Over New Climate-Change Rules" (Dallas Morning News)

"Obama's Climate Change Plan 'isn't a War on Coal', Says US Energy Secretary" (Reuters)