An Eventful Fall at Appalachian Voices

October and November were eventful months here at Appalachian Voices.

Just before Thanksgiving, we celebrated the halt to construction along Atlantic Coast Pipeline water crossings as a result of one of the many lawsuits we’ve joined to hold pipeline developers accountable to the law. We participated in the Virginia Air Pollution Control Board’s November hearings for the proposed Buckingham Compressor Station alongside community partners, and joined those partners in calling out Gov. Northam for his egregious dismissal of two air board members during the board’s deliberations (click here to read more).

We also held a summit with allies and landowners in the three counties that would be affected by the proposed Mountain Valley Pipeline Southgate extension to help them prepare for the challenges ahead.

Also in November, we joined Coal River Mountain Watch and the Sierra Club in filing a lawsuit to block an unlawful Republic Energy mountaintop removal coal mine in West Virginia. We traveled with residents from Central Appalachia to Washington, D.C., to advocate for black lung benefits and mine reclamation.

We are opposing dangerous utility proposals in regional statehouses that would enrich monopolies at the expense of ratepayers, and we are also advancing policies that would make clean energy more accessible to everyday folks.

Those are just some of the recent highlights. As always, there is a lot happening within our organization and the region at large.

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