Written by Kevin Ridder

AVMountainBorder-frontporch1

Kevin Ridder

Born in Arizona and raised in Tennessee, Kevin’s love of the mountains drove him to move even further east to Boone, N.C., where he serves as The Appalachian Voice's Associate Editor and a communications associate for the organization.

Cletus and dog

Cletus and Beverly Bohon

After Cletus and Beverly Bohon spent almost 30 years living in their peaceful woods, Mountain Valley Pipeline developers used eminent domain to cut down a swath of trees on their property.

Read More
Carolyn Reilly

Carolyn Reilly

The Reillys moved to Virginia in 2010 in search of a more fulfilling, farm-based lifestyle — a lifestyle disrupted in the past few years by the developers of the Mountain Valley Pipeline.

Read More
Ellen and Elise Gerhart

Elise and Ellen Gerhart

Fighting back against a pipeline company with the worst oil spill rate in the country, the Gerhart family started a tree-sit in March 2017 that was still ongoing a year later.

Read More
Ashby Berkley

Ashby Berkley

Ashby Berkley’s plans to renovate Sweet Springs Resort in Monroe County, W.Va., are muddied by fears of the Mountain Valley Pipeline puncturing an aquifer and depleting the resort’s renowned natural springs.

Read More

Virginia Law Grants Large Utilities Less Regulation

Massive changes in Virginia’s energy policy were signed into law last month, with many legislators crying foul.

Read More

Kentucky Legislators Split Over Solar

A Kentucky net-metering bill that would allow the state to decide how much money residents with rooftop solar earn from the surplus power they produce narrowly passed the state House in March.

Read More
Plastic bottle with rust-colored tap water

(Un)Well Water

Melissa and Chauncy Easterling first discovered that something…

Read More

1,000 Days on Bottled Water

Jan. 11 marked the 1,000th day that hundreds…

Read More
map of density of abandoned mine problems

Decades in the Making: A Mine Reclamation Backlog

Several charts and maps show the enormity of the abandoned mine problems that still need to be cleaned up — and the inadequacy of the current cleanup fund.

Read More
amd drainage

The Ongoing Cleanup of Abandoned Coal Mines

A key federal mine reclamation program is up for reauthorization in 2021 — and the work is far from finished.

Read More