Front Porch Blog
Updates from Appalachia
Survey says: Virginians want clean energy
A bi-partisan poll released today shows solid support among Virginia voters for the state to develop a plan to cut carbon pollution and shift to cleaner sources of energy. Meanwhile, in Richmond, the General Assembly is heading in the opposite direction, casting votes in favor of dirty fossil fuels.
Today, I prayed we #kickcoalash
Guest Contributor Caroline Rutledge Armijo: On Sunday, Residents for Coal Ash Clean Up met on Belews Lake, overlooking the smokestacks at Duke Energy’s Belews Steam Station in Stokes County, N.C. Today marks the one year anniversary of the coal ash spill into the Dan River, the third largest coal ash spill in our nation’s history but likely a drop in the bucket of what would happen if there was a spill at Belews Creek.
Update from the Virginia General Assembly
Virginia’s legislative session may be brief, but many bills with major implications for our future energy mix have already been acted on. Two weeks into this year’s session, here is a look at where our top issues stand.
Our Energy Savings campaign is heating up in the High Country
Back in October we launched the High Country Home Energy Makeover Contest as part of our campaign to motivate Blue Ridge Electric Membership Corp. to offer an on-bill financing program for their members in western North Carolina. We solicited enough support to pay for energy efficiency retrofits for three Blue Ridge Electric members. Read on to meet the contest winners.
Virginia must guard against Freedom Industries-type spill
University of Richmond law professor Noah Sachs recalls the W.Va. crisis last year, when some 300,000 people were left without clean tap water because of a major spill from chemical storage tanks. Guess what – Virginia essentially has no laws to regulate land-based storage of toxic chemicals near rivers. As Sachs has documented, dozens of businesses each storing more than 1 million pounds of toxic chemicals are located on major rivers, including the James, Shenandoah and Potomac.
