Monday, June 17th, 2024 | Posted by Quenton King | 1 Comment
Recognizing the difficulty countless households have with these decisions, members of the West Virginia, Virginia, and Kentucky Black Lung Associations traveled in early May to Washington, D.C., to meet with legislators about the need to increase miners’ benefits, which have failed to keep pace with inflation. [
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Friday, June 14th, 2024 | Posted by Dan Radmacher | 1 Comment
Community members have fought this pipeline for 10 years — pointing out its many flaws and dangers and winning court battles by proving developers and regulators were ignoring laws meant to protect communities and the environment. Now, those regulators allow the pipeline to go into service. [
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Thursday, June 13th, 2024 | Posted by AV's Intern Team | No Comments
This week, Appalachian Voices and 12 partner organizations are on Capitol Hill to tell Congress to protect our communities by making coal companies clean up their functionally abandoned coal mines, known as zombie mines. [
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Friday, May 24th, 2024 | Posted by Quenton King | 2 Comments
On Wednesday, senators on a Health, Education, Labor and Pensions subcommittee led by Sen. John Hickenlooper, D-Colorado, held a hearing and listened to testimony from miner advocates and experts on mine safety and the black lung benefits program. [
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Thursday, May 23rd, 2024 | Posted by Dan Radmacher | 1 Comment
Four rules
finalized by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency late last month will limit pollution from power plants — reducing climate-altering emissions, protecting the health of nearby communities and speeding the transition to renewable energy. [
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Tuesday, May 21st, 2024 | Posted by Jessica Sims | No Comments
When Congress placed a thumb on the scale to mandate approval of Mountain Valley Pipeline’s permits in June 2023, construction resumed and communities along the route expressed deep concerns about the use of degraded materials and rushed construction practices. [
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Monday, May 20th, 2024 | Posted by Matt Allenbaugh | No Comments
You can soften the blow of ApCo’s rate increases by making a plan to improve the energy efficiency of your home and taking advantage of the tax incentives currently available. [
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Friday, May 17th, 2024 | Posted by Austin Counts | No Comments
Whether it’s a medical device, like a CPAP machine, or heating and cooling during extreme temperatures, electricity is an important part of a community’s overall resilience. This is especially true during local disasters and power outages. [
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Tuesday, May 14th, 2024 | Posted by AV's Intern Team | No Comments
It is far too easy for coal companies to use bankruptcy to effectively hit a reset button. Once they file for bankruptcy, damages they caused and obligations they committed to are often no longer their responsibility. [
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Tuesday, May 7th, 2024 | Posted by Willie Dodson | No Comments
Appalachian Voices is launching a new partnership with Black By God, a Black-led news and storytelling organization, with a publication of the same name, in West Virginia. Black By God is dedicated to providing a more nuanced portrayal of African Americans in the Mountain State and the Appalachian region than is often found in other media sources. [
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Thursday, May 2nd, 2024 | Posted by Quenton King | 1 Comment
In April, the Mine Safety and Health Administration announced the
final version of a rule meant to protect coal miners from respirable silica. The announcement was a long time coming. [
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Tuesday, April 30th, 2024 | Posted by AV's Intern Team | No Comments
In late summer of 2022, Appalachian Voices discovered selenium, a common pollutant associated with coal mining, in high concentrations in certain streams in the Big Sandy River watershed in Pike County, Kentucky. These waterways receive runoff from the S-1 Hunts Branch Surface Mine, a nearly 2,000-acre mountaintop removal coal mine operated by Lexington Coal Company. [
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