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Virginia AV Office Opposing Surry’s Behemoth Coal Power Plant
By Mike McCoy AV’s Virginia office is focused on preventing a behemoth of a coal plant from being permitted and built in the small town of Dendron, Virginia in the Hampton Roads area. Nine Virginia electric cooperatives are partnering in a 1500 megawatt coal plant that will have massive environmental impacts. The Old Dominion Electric…
Read MoreTeam Beltway Weighs In: Clean Water Protection Act Reaches 151 Cosponsors
By J.W. Randolph The federal Clean Water Protection Act (HR 1310) has reached 151 cosponsors in just under 4 months of cosponsor recruitment, Appalachian Voices ‘Team Beltway’ is pleased to announce. During the last Congress, it took 21 months to reach the same goal. This shows that our grassroots work across the country to educate…
Read MoreRail-trail leads along Piney River near Virginia’s Blue Ridge
Story by Joe Tennis Easing along the Piney River, the Virginia Blue Ridge Railway Trail chugs along a historical path, crisscrossing the Amherst-Nelson county line. This easy to moderate rail trail, at five miles in length, was once the path of the Virginia Blue Ridge Railway. Trains stopped rolling in 1981, and that’s when Popie…
Read MoreAppalachian Voices Welcomes New Executive Director, Willa Mays
Appalachian Voices is pleased to announced the appointment of Willa Coffey Mays as our new executive director. Mays brings 20 years of experience working with non-profit organizations, ten of those with groups focused on the environment, working in marketing, fundraising, leadership, and program development. “To have an executive director with the breadth of experience and…
Read MoreWind Power: A View from the West
By Dawn Stover Climate change is the greatest environmental challenge of our time, and virtually everyone agrees that renewable energy must be part of the solution. Unfortunately, the scramble to implement “green” technologies—primarily wind power—is rapidly transforming landscapes across the United States. And in the rush to erect turbines, wildlife impacts are too often overlooked…
Read MoreMaking Realistic Choices
Proposals for new wind energy projects are generating controversy in Appalachia. Opponents of wind projects, such as the ones in Tazewell or Highland counties of Virginia, or Barbour and Randolph counties of West Virginia, are worried about biodiversity, about safety, about property values and about views of the mountains. This is perfectly understandable. The legitimate…
Read MoreLetters to the Editor
Jobs depend on mountaintop removal To the Editor, I am writing in regard to an e-mail that was forwarded to me by a mountaintop removal opponent. My husband mines coal by mountaintop removal, and is right now laid off. My husband and I were born and raised in the great state of West Virginia. We…
Read MoreCoal River featured in two upcoming cinema releases
The community of Coal River, West Virginia, which has been the center of a battle between residents wanting to save Coal River Mountain and a coal company planning to destroy it, is now at the center of two upcoming films. On Coal River “On Coal River,” directed by Francine Cavanaugh and Adams Wood, is a…
Read MoreCoal Country
Film about Mountaintop Removal Mining to be Screened July 11 in West Virginia Story by Linda Coutant Whenever you turn on your lights or air conditioning, filmmaker Mari-Lynn Evans wants you to consider who pays the price for that electricity. “The people of Appalachia will be hard to forget after people see their faces and…
Read MoreSomething’s Rising
Appalachians Against Mountaintop Removal Editor’s Note: In this issue, we would like to introduce what we hope will become a regular feature in this publication, the Appalachian Voice Book Club. Every issue, we will select a book, provide you with a short review and questions to guide your reading and discussion, and point you to…
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