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Changing Tides of Collaboration in Central Appalachia
For more than 15 years, Appalachian Voices has worked to protect the air, land and water of Central Appalachia. We do this work because the protection of the place we live is integral to the health, happiness and prosperity of our communities. We do this work for the benefit of all people in Central Appalachia.
Despite this, we often feel bogged down in contentious rhetoric that pits “treehuggers” against “friends of coal.” We often must spend all our time dealing with problems — water pollution, dust problems and violations of existing laws — when we’d much rather focus on collaboration and finding solutions.
Read MoreA Watched EPA Never Acts: 5 Years After the TVA Coal Ash Disaster
It has been five years since the TVA Coal Ash disaster in Tennessee, which sent 1.1 billion gallons of toxic coal ash into Emory and Clinch rivers. While the nation has watched and petitioned the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the agency responsible for issuing federal standards for coal ash disposal, little action has been taken. Perhaps this is similar to the old adage that says “a watched pot never boils.”
Read MoreFive Years After the TVA Coal Ash Disaster, What Do We Have to Show For It?
It’s been five years since more than a billion gallons of coal ash flooded rivers and neighborhoods surrounding the Tennessee Valley Authority’s Kingston Fossil Plant. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency promised to take action, but to this day Americans are asking the EPA: “Where are you?”
We went back to December 2008 to track political and social progress around the globe, and put it side-by-side with the lack of progress the EPA has made toward protecting clean water and our health from toxic coal ash. Check out the timeline below and click it for a larger version.
Read More50th Anniversary of the Clean Air Act of 1963
Although the Clean Air Act was first enacted Dec. 17, 1963, it wasn’t until the 1970 Clean Air Act amendments that the law was substantial enough to make a memorable mark on history. Perhaps embarrassed by memories of the more clumsy and inept act of 1963, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency itself gave the 50th anniversary the cold shoulder — instead celebrating the of the amendments Dec. 31, 2010.
Read MoreHowever Long Overdue, Our Energy Efficiency Opportunity Is At Hand
Today’s Bloomberg View editorial bears a headline at once forehead-slapping simple and frustratingly complex: Energy Efficiency Is Long Overdue. “On a global scale, we humans are becoming more energy efficient with each passing year,” the Bloomberg piece begins. “Even so, we’re exploiting only a fraction of the technological opportunities to use energy more cost-effectively.”
Read MoreAppalachian Voices and Partners Challenge Kentucky’s Weakening of Water Pollution Standards for Selenium
Earlier today Appalachian Voices and a number of partner organizations sued the EPA over their approval of Kentucky’s new, weaker standard for selenium pollution. Selenium is extremely toxic to fish, and causes deformities and reproductive failure at extremely low levels. The pollutant is commonly discharged from coal mines and coal ash ponds, but currently Kentucky…
Read MoreBurning Wood: The Good, the Bad and the Misunderstood
As the push continues to seek alternative and renewable energy resources, utility companies are increasingly turning to an energy source from days gone by: wood. The growth of the biomass-for-energy industry has been particularly vigorous in the Southeast, with exports of wood pellets rising by 70 percent in just the past year. While this industry…
Read MoreOn Heels of USDA Energy Efficiency Loan Program, Appalachian Voices Launches the Energy Savings Action Center
On Dec. 4, the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Loan Program (EECLP), a new loan program that will provide at least $250 million to rural electric cooperatives each year to develop or expand energy efficiency loan programs for residential and business customers. To encourage rural electric cooperatives across Appalachia take…
Read MoreAppalachia’s Environmental Vote Tracker: Dec/Jan 2013-14 issue
See how Appalachia’s congressional delegation voted on environmental issues.
Read MoreRalph Davis: Exploring Appalachia’s Future
By Nolen Nychay In his 21 years of journalistic work at publications such as the Jackson County Sun, Paintsville Herald and Floyd County Times, Ralph Davis developed a close relationship with the small communities of eastern Kentucky and the rural lifestyle the region prides itself on. When Davis began work on his master’s thesis in…
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