Front Porch Blog
Updates from Appalachia
Cuts to funding for black lung benefits
Despite significant grassroots pressure, an excise tax that pays into a healthcare and disability fund for miners with black lung was slashed in half. The lack of action by Congress amounts to a tax break for coal companies while putting benefits for former miners and their families at risk.
Virginia’s Union Hill community continues fight for environmental justice
Pipeline resisters were distraught – but, alas, not surprised – when Va. regulators OK’d a huge fracked-gas compressor station in historic Union Hill. But all vowed to continue the fight for environmental justice.
One neighbor shares the devastating impact of Mountain Valley Pipeline construction on her animals and family
Arietta Ann DuPre’s land and her neighbor’s land in Wayside, W.Va., serves as a home for rescued horses and other animals – and in early 2018, Mountain Valley Pipeline developers cut her horses’ pasture land in two.
Virginians brace for the fallout from Westmoreland Coal’s bankruptcy
Westmoreland Coal’s bankruptcy puts health benefits for 500 Virginians and pensions for 7,000 former Virginia miners in jeopardy. A bill proposed in the Senate would protect these benefits — and also shore up the Black Lung Disability Trust Fund.
Westmoreland Coal’s Appalachian connection
In October 2018, the oldest coal company in the United States filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. While now largely operating in the western United States, Westmoreland has many ties to Southwest Virginia.
