The author of a muckraking book on the coal industry will speak this weekend in Lawrence.

Jeff Goodell, author of “Big Coal,” will speak at 4 p.m. Saturday at the Lawrence Public Library, 707 Vt. The event, sponsored by The Raven bookstore, is free and open to the public.

Goodell is a journalist and a contributing editor to Rolling Stone magazine. The New York Times called his book a “compelling indictment of one of the country’s biggest, most powerful and most antiquated industries.”

The visit comes as Hays-based Sunflower Electric Power Corp. plans three controversial new coal-fired power plants near Holcomb.