Public health experts involved in containing the Ebola crisis have condemned the actions of Peabody Energy, the world’s largest privately-owned coal company, to exploit the disease for profit. “As part of a PR offensive to rebrand coal as a “21st-century fuel” that can help solve global poverty, it has emerged that at the height of Ebola’s impact in Africa, Peabody Energy promoted its product as an answer to Africa’s devastating public health crisis.

Greg Boyce, the chief executive of Peabody, a US-based multinational with mining interests around the world, included a slide on Ebola and energy in a presentation to a coal industry conference in September last year. The slide suggested that more energy would have spurred the distribution of a hypothetical Ebola vaccine – citing as supporting evidence a University of Pennsylvania infectious disease expert.”  [The Guardian]

Two Illinois lawmakers are planning to introduce legislation targeting the coal industry, particularly in Wyoming’s Powder River Basin corridor where hundreds of tonnes of coal are transported per day.”Democratic Sen. Andy Manar and Republican Rep. John Bradley are leading a group of southern Illinois legislators who want the state’s power plants burning locally mined coal, a fuel source that fell out of favor a quarter-century ago with new environmental rules targeting acid rain.” [Midwest Energy News]