Front Porch Blog
Updates from Appalachia
Mountain Valley Pipeline: Risky, ruinous and roadblocked
Nine years after the Mountain Valley Pipeline project was announced, it remains unnecessary and dangerous to the communities, water resources, lands and habitats through which it is routed.
Wins and losses in the 2023 Virginia General Assembly session
Even with the short session, Appalachian Voices’ capitol team had a lot to keep track of, with a number of bills we were hoping to convince legislators to support — and quite a few we were hoping to convince them to vote down.
Guest post: New SkyTruth research reveals legacy of mountaintop mining — and the policy implications
Explosives and heavy equipment: the perfect combination for mine owners to extract coal from a pristine Appalachian landscape. Too bad this process, known as mountaintop removal mining, is terrible if you live near the mined mountain, or in a watershed downstream, or on a planet faced with the imminent threat of ever-increasing temperatures brought about by greenhouse-gas emissions.
Bad actor coal company seeks to expand surface mine in endangered candy darter habitat
Surface mining of this scale is bad news for the environment even if it is conducted within the confines of the law, but South Fork Coal Company’s history of regulatory infractions is almost as egregious as Greenbrier County is beautiful.
EPA poised to botch update of important air quality rule
PM 2.5 is a lethal combination of metals, organic matter, acids and other substances so tiny that they can be inhaled and delivered directly into the bloodstream. These airborne pollutants are emitted by tailpipes, power plants and numerous other industries. In our region, coal mine dust is an additional source of this pollutant.
