RockingChair

Front Porch Blog

Updates from Appalachia

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Jan. 10: National Cut Your Energy Costs Day

Make your home energy efficient to save money by lowering your power bills!

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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Map credit: Matt Hepler, Appalachian Voices Source: Analysis of public records data received from Department of Labor, October 28, 2024

New map hints at scale of black lung crisis

Using data from the Department of Labor, we’ve created a map that hints at the scale of the black lung crisis.

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Proposed Arch-Consol merger must secure black lung benefits for miners

Black lung disease continues to devastate coal miners, their families and communities. The fatal disease has been at epidemic levels for years now, sparking a surge of grassroots activism by the Black Lung Association and others, including Appalachian Voices.

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How the Department of Government Efficiency’s plans will harm Appalachian communities: Part 2

What the heck is impoundment and why should you care? Undoing of the Impoundment Control Act would lead to much less certainty when it comes to many programs that the people of Appalachia and people all over the country use for economic growth and stability, environmental protection and more.

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Federal regulators poised to crack down on coal mine owned by Jim Justice’s family

On Dec. 10, 2024, the U.S. Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement sent a damning letter to the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection over the state’s failure to rein in operations on a wildly non-compliant coal strip mine in Wyoming County, West Virginia. 

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