2013 — Issue 2 (April/May)
Home Energy Tips
Making your home more energy efficient can sound like an expensive and complicated task, but in reality there are many easy steps homeowners and renters can take to convert a dwelling from an energy waster to a sustainable homestead. Below we have outlined ways to help you pay less and reduce your home’s carbon footprint.…
Read MoreGreen Visions
Chattanooga’s high-tech advances are seeded with grassroots principles By Molly Moore As dusk falls on the north bank of the Tennessee River, streetlights turn on at Chattanooga’s Coolidge Park. Rows of gleaming bicycles wait for the next morning’s bikeshare riders, and the sun’s last rays fade from a park building’s green roof. If the streetlights…
Read MorePolicy Expert to Steer New Energy Savings Program
The Southeast possesses some of the greatest resources for making energy use more efficient, and Appalachian Voices has a plan to help unleash that potential. This spring, we are launching a new program focused on promoting energy savings and reducing the use of coal-fired power in rural Appalachia and the Southeast. Rory McIlmoil, a long-time…
Read MoreTom Cormons: A Leader With a Purpose
When Tom Cormons left the East Coast to attend college in Charlottesville, Va., it didn’t take him long to fall in love with the mountains. Every opportunity he had during his time at the the University of Virginia, he hiked, paddled and climbed in the rugged mountains of Appalachia.He eventually met his wife, Heather, while…
Read MoreEPA Gets Its Day in Court: Hearings Begin on Spruce Mine No. 1 Appeal
By Brian Sewell Dozens of coal industry groups and environmental organizations crowded into a Washington, D.C., courtroom on March 14 for the latest chapter of a long legal battle. A three-judge panel heard arguments on the legality of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s decision to veto permits for one of the largest mountaintop removal coal…
Read MoreForest Service Funding Impacts Linville Gorge
Opinions from our Readers Dear Editor, The Feb./March 2013 issue of The Appalachian Voice briefly introduced the prescribed burn being proposed for the Linville Gorge Wilderness. The burning of this rugged landscape would be attempted multiple times over the next decade, ostensibly to restore the natural fire regime and reduce future wildfire potential. These commendable…
Read MoreEnergy Report Shorts
OSM Approves Expansion of Appalachia’s Largest Slurry Impoundment The Federal Office of Surface Mining recently approved an expansion of the Brushy Fork impoundment in West Virginia — one of the largest slurry disposal sites in the country — to hold two billion more gallons of the waste produced from washing coal. Unless the West Virginia…
Read MoreSelenium Spillover: Pollutant Poses Growing Risks to Ecosystems and the Coal Industry
By Brian Sewell Last year, when the bankrupt Patriot Coal Corp. agreed to phase out mountaintop removal coal mining as part of a settlement with environmental groups, it was partially because the company was on the hook for more than $400 million in fines to clean up selenium pollution from several of its surface mines.…
Read MoreWho Represents us in the 113th Congress?
The 113th session of the U.S. Senate began on Jan. 3, with the Democratic party gaining two seats as a result of the November election — only slightly increasing its majority control to 53. We take a look at the 10 central and southern Appalachian senators: Who represents us? VIRGINIA Tim Kaine While serving as…
Read MoreA Return to the States
By Appalachian Voices staff State legislatures in Appalachia are using their authority on health care reform, taxes, education, and energy and environmental policy to accomplish their own agendas, and sometimes, to rebuke federal policies. Here is the latest from our region’s representation. Virginia As he prepares to leave office this fall, Gov. Bob McDonnell will…
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