Written by Guest Contributor
Guest Contributor
Welcome to our special feature where we invite guests to pull up a chair, sit a spell, and share their views on issues important to you.
Virginia inches closer to a carbon market
Virginia’s Department of Environmental Quality is developing a rule that could significantly limit carbon emissions from power plants in the commonwealth. Developing a carbon trading program would be a sound option.
New renewable energy options for French Broad co-op members
Today’s guest blogger Alex Arnold focuses on a new policy from French Broad electric co-op in western North Carolina that promotes residential renewable energy generation, including solar energy
Atlantic Coast Pipeline proposal raises questions that beg for answers
West Virginia resident and guest blogger April Keating outlines some of the key concerns with the Atlantic Coast Pipeline, including safety risk, runoff and pollution, increased fracking, costs to ratepayers and more.
Students speak out against the Atlantic Coast Pipeline: Why collaborative resistance matters
Guest bloggers Divest Appalachian members Cassidy Quillen and Olivia Nelson take a look at how the Atlantic Coast Pipeline touts an ideology of sustainability while profiting off of industries driving climate change.
Appalachia is blessed with abundant water — we should protect it
“One of the resources we are most blessed with here in Appalachia is fresh drinking water of the highest quality,” writes Mackay Pierce in defense of the Stream Protection Rule, which was recently thrown out by Congress and President Trump. “We should be taking every possible measure that we can to protect it.”
Protect natural resources for Southwest Virginia’s future
For all my life, the coal economy has ruled this region and its people,” writes Ron Short of Danville, Va., in a letter supporting the Stream Protection Rule. “Now we are facing the demise of the coal industry, and we must save the valuable natural resources that we have left if we are ever to develop cultural tourism and eco-tourism as important parts of a new economy that works for everyone.”
Duke Energy neighbors say “goodwill” package is meant to buy silence
From the Alliance of Carolinians Together Against Coal Ash: On Friday the 13th, Duke Energy released a “goodwill” offer to residents on wells near the company’s coal ash sites. To many residents, however, the ominously timed release is more hush money than it is an act of goodwill.
Solar and energy efficiency…like peanut butter and jelly
While energy efficiency is just as clean as solar when it comes to emissions, efficiency by itself can’t produce energy for customers looking for a clean energy option, and solar without energy efficiency can’t reach the full extent of its potential. Both are valuable and can, and should, work together as an integrated solution to create cleaner and cheaper energy.
Citizen action leads to closure of KD#2 mountaintop removal mine
After two years of pressure from citizens, West Virginia permanently halted mining at the KD#2 mountaintop removal coal mine. But the mine has already damaged land and water. This guest post features a statement from the Kanawha Forest Coalition.
Atlantic Coast Pipeline backers head to North Carolina
While North Carolina is rightfully focused on the coal ash scandal, another environmental tug-of-war is strengthening in some of the state’s poorest areas. The Atlantic Coast Pipeline would cut 170 miles through eastern N.C. where a quarter to a third of people live in poverty. And this is precisely why these types of projects are placed in low-income communities: to reduce the chance of resistance.
