Front Porch Blog
Updates from Appalachia
Smoke on the mountain: Canadian wildfires and Appalachian air quality
The wildfire conditions in Canada also affected the United States, with smoke drifting southward and prompting the National Weather Service to issue air quality alerts across the Upper Midwest, including in Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan.
How the Trump plan for the federal budget hurts Appalachia
Late afternoon on Friday, May 30, President Donald Trump released his proposed fiscal year 2026 government funding budget, which includes steep cuts that would have serious consequences for Appalachians and people in coal communities across the country if enacted.
Clean energy tax credits are powering change across Appalachia
Across the country, clean energy tax credits have opened doors for schools, nonprofits, churches, and small businesses to lower energy costs, invest in local jobs, and build more resilient communities.
South Fork Coal Company: ‘a trail of pollution, debt and disregard’
Since late 2023, Appalachian Voices has worked closely with the West Virginia Highlands Conservancy, Allegheny-Blue Ridge Alliance and other partners to defend the Cherry River from South Fork Coal’s negligence, and to resist this coal company’s encroachment into the Monongahela National Forest.
Justice family coal company faces contempt hearing over broken cleanup promises
A&G Coal Corporation, the coal company majority-owned by U.S. Senator Jim Justice and managed by his son Jay Justice, is under renewed legal scrutiny — this time for failing to comply with a federal consent decree that was supposed to ensure the long-overdue cleanup of three major surface mines in Wise County, Virginia.
