Front Porch Blog
Y’all don’t hear us
Miners express frustration with Congress on black lung as courts and regulators delay implementation of dust regulations “Y’all don’t hear us. We’re just the peons,” said Roosevelt Neal, of Beckley, in a meeting of the Fayette County Black Lung Association on the evening of August 19. Neal worked 27 years mining coal for 27 years.…
Read MoreCoal hauling through the Monongahela National Forest has ceased… for now.
Our collective efforts to defend the Monongahela National Forest and the Cherry River from the abuses of South Fork Coal Company are having an impact.
Read MorePart one: The $3 billion health costs of Dominion Energy’s proposed Chesterfield gas power plant
This is the first of two blogs looking at how Dominion Energy’s plans for a new methane gas power plant in Chesterfield would affect the local community and everyone in Virginia who gets power from the state’s biggest power company. We’ll dive into the latter in part two!
Read More‘Take your pipe and shove it’: How one Tennessee community fought back a major fossil fuel project — and isn’t done yet
Residents of Cheatham County, Tennessee, united to push back against the Tennessee Valley Authority’s plan for a methane gas power plant on 286 acres of rolling farmland.
Read MoreMapping the decline of coal production
The decline of coal production in Appalachia has been ongoing for decades. We thought it would be useful to develop a way to visualize these trends across the region.
Read MoreThe state of coal community protections 48 years after landmark mining law
On Aug. 3, 1977, President Jimmy Carter signed the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act into law. This anniversary presents a good opportunity to discuss SMCRA’s intent, where it’s fallen short over the years and how the Trump administration is undermining SMCRA’s protections.
Read MoreSWVA leaders advocate for community resilience projects in D.C.
On an extraordinarily hot, humid day in July, three Southwest Virginia community leaders climbed their way around Capitol Hill. Leabern Kennedy, Vice Mayor of Pound, Linda Kiser of Dante and Melissa Gillenwater of Dungannon had endured the eight-hour drive from the other end of the state the previous day and were now making their way…
Read MoreMiners continue long fight for adequate black lung benefits
This is a meeting of the Southwest Virginia Black Lung Association Chapter II, and they have a lot to talk about.
Read MorePart II: How the Trump plan for the federal budget hurts Appalachia
This is the second of two blogs highlighting some of the ways that the proposed budget would make Appalachians less safe and less financially secure, undercutting economic development and environmental remediation efforts.
Read MoreAppalachian Voices v. EPA: A letter from our executive director
Appalachian Voices joined our partners and attorneys in a class-action lawsuit against the EPA for unlawfully terminating its Environmental and Climate Justice Block Grant Program. Read a letter from Executive Director Tom Cormons about why we’re taking this step.
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