Wind 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 More

Making 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 More

Letters 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 More

Coal 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 More

Coal 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 More

Something’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…

Read More

The winding road to Tazewell

Story by Bill Kovarik The two-lane road to Tazewell, Va. fades to gray like a pair of blue jeans in an old photo. It winds past small but prosperous homes, along pastures rimmed with split rail fences, and through some of the most beautiful mountains in Appalachia. Once it simply connected this quiet town to…

Read More

Scientists Search for Conservation Strategies

Story by Bill Kovarik Increasing numbers of windmills will pose threats to bats and migratory birds, scientists have warned in recent years, unless conservation strategies are put into place. Many states, including Virginia, are beginning to include stringent monitoring and mitigation plans in the wind energy permitting process, and a set of federal guidelines from…

Read More

Paddling Appalachia

With tumbling rivers and cool mountain lakes, Appalachia is a paddler’s paradise. We offer a list of eight great destinations. Whitewater enthusiasts from across the country come to Appalachia’s rivers for their aquatic adrenaline rushes. Sportsmen often drift in canoes or open kayaks for fishing excursions. A long weekend of canoe camping on a river…

Read More

Remembering the Whooshies of ’79

Appalachia’s first industrial scale windmill attracted praise, condemnation and cranks Story by Bill Kovarik They said that Boone, NC’s wind turbine didn’t work, that it was too loud, and that, like some kind of gigantic drunk, it attracted wierdos. Well, two out of three. Appalachia’s first wind power project, built in 1979, did work –…

Read More