There were bright spots and not-so-bright spots in the 2024 Virginia General Assembly session.
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As spring bursts into bloom in the mountains, Appalachian Voices is officially launching Building Community Resilience in Virginia’s Coalfields, a new project funded through the Environmental Protection Agency’s Environmental Justice Collaborative Problem-Solving Grant.
What I learned from the town hall was that Dominion, a company with significant resources and ability to expand clean energy in Virginia, has branded a new polluting gas plant as its only option for “reliability.”
Even as Mountain Valley Pipeline’s rushed construction results in landslides and muddy waters in Virginia and concerned residents call for state and federal authorities to stop the damage, communities to the south are facing new and changing threats from the pipeline’s proposed Southgate extension.
This year, the App Studies Conference will be held at Western Carolina University in Cullowhee, North Carolina, from March 7 to March 9. Along with a wide array of grassroots partners, Appalachian Voices will be there to learn, teach and have a good time!
Along with Andrew Atencia and Adrian Herder, organizers for Tó Nizhoní Aní, Nicole Horseherder will be visiting Appalachia in March to teach and learn about the environmental justice movement in the coalfields of Black Mesa and Appalachia, respectively.
A recent study found that nearly 40% of the “active” surface permits in Kentucky have been sitting idle for the last five years. The coal companies responsible for those mine permits did not produce any coal, nor did they make any progress in cleaning up the sites.
In 2023, Appalachian advocates made several advancements in the fight for greater protections for rural communities and families affected by black lung but as we enter 2024, an ongoing battle in Congress over spending is threatening to undo much of this progress while also cutting programs that benefit these communities.
Dec. 13 was a day that Vonda Robinson had been waiting over three years for. On that day, Rep. Morgan McGarvey, D-Ky., introduced the Relief for Survivors of Miners Act in the U.S. House of Representatives.