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Breaking Down Job Barriers
By Paige Campbell Nearly three-quarters of a million jobs were lost in Appalachia between 2007 and 2009. All but 35 of the region’s 420 counties, as designated by the Appalachian Regional Commission, saw negative employment trends during that lowest low of the current recession, and the slow crawl back out has been slower here than…
Read MoreHampton Roads Vs the Coal Plant
The effort to keep Hampton Roads air from suffering from a major new source of air and water pollution for next sixty years is picking up and your help is needed. On Tuesday Norfolk is going to vote whether to join the Consortium for Infant and Child Health (CINCH), The American Lung Association, Isle of…
Read MoreWest Virginia meets Los Angeles! An account on our West Coast Tour by Beverly Walkup
By Kate Finneran Appalachian Voices National Field Coordinator, 2011-12 This Spring I was honored to be asked to go to LA on the Appalachian Treasures Tour to speak on living with the effects of mountaintop removal coal mining. Upon arrival at LAX I was met at the airport by my speaking partner, Lenny Kohm, who…
Read MoreStrange Happenings in Norfolk
Norfolk could be on the verge of becoming the fourth Hampton Roads locality to officially oppose the largest coal fired power plant ever proposed in Virginia. It appears, however, that a few strange events occurred in the last couple weeks that kept it from coming to a vote and could potentially make the resolution of…
Read MoreGuest Post: I Believe! I mean, sort of…Well, not really…
Here is a great blog post from “Activist and Mom” Betsy Shepard who has been fighting a proposal to build the largest coal plant in Virginia a few miles from her family’s home in Surry County. She points out the incredible hypocrisy of the coal industry’s rhetoric around greenhouse gas emissions in the face of…
Read MoreThe EPA’s New Carbon Rule, Getting Serious About Climate Change
So we’re a little late to the punch on this one. Let’s take a moment to catch up. Last Tuesday, March 27, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency released the first-ever rules regulating carbon pollution from power plants. For those who didn’t already know this news, I should also mention this is not an April Fool’s…
Read MoreAppalachian Treasures on tour out West!
By Kate Finneran Appalachian Voices National Field Coordinator, 2011-12 The Appalachian Treasures Tour is out West right now! Our own Lenny Kohm is out on the road in Arizona currently and headed to Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Fullerton, and then Northern California! Click here for upcoming tour dates. In order to bring the country together…
Read MoreClose Calls as Congress Defeats Rollbacks to EPA Boiler Rule and Speed-up of Keystone XL Pipeline
Get ready, because a hostile hive of lobbyists echoing industry cries that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is no more than big government, job-killing, mean, green machine may have just been shaken up again. On Thurs., March 8, Congress narrowly defeated an amendment to a transportation funding bill authored by Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) that…
Read MoreBig Coal’s Assault on Property Rights
Big Coal’s audacity can be astounding. For years, the coal company Consol has been dumping toxic wastewater into mined-out underground mines in Buchanan County, Virginia, without the consent of the owners of the property where these old mines are located. In 2008, the Virginia Supreme Court ruled that this is an illegal trespass against the…
Read MoreRecent Press on the Surry, Virginia Coal Plant Campaign
On Monday March 5th the Old Dominion Electric Cooperative received local zoning approval for what would be the largest coal-fired power plant in the state if built. The Dendron Town Council voted to approve local zoning unanimously and without once discussing the proposal publicly. Both locals and people from the downwind communities of Hampton Roads…
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