Story by Bill Kovarik Lawsuits against the Tennessee Valley Authority are continuing in the wake of the coal ash disaster two years ago. Currently, 58 lawsuits against TVA have been consolidated into a class action suit alleging various health, economic…
Search results for: Kovarik
After The Hoopla: What The 2010 Elections Mean for Mountaintop Removal
Story by J.W. Randolph & Bill Kovarik The mid-term elections this November will have mixed results for efforts to end mountaintop removal coal mining, with Republicans gaining control of the U.S. House of Representatives for the next two years and…
Biofuels: Local Gives Way to Large Scale
By Bill Kovarik ASHEVILLE, N.C. – Melita Kyriakou watches as a big blue fuel truck with a green biodiesel logo grinds past the fuel tanks, under the bridge and up the hill – off on another delivery to one of…
USDA: Label Fuels Continued Controversy
By Bill Kovarik The USDA certified “Organic” label first appeared on foods in 2002 following 12 years of testing, rulemaking and controversy. By last year, organic agriculture had become a $26.6 billion business, growing at a rate of 5.3 percent…
Home Grown: From Farm to Farmer’s Market, Appalachians Seek to Bring New Meaning to Modern Agriculture
Story by Bill Kovarik Stroll through any farmer’s market and you’ll find a riot of color, taste, and sensation. And, quite likely, crowds of consumers. Farmers markets are the most visible sign of rapid change in agriculture. For consumers it…
The Battle Over Blair Mountain Rages On
By Bill Kovarik The fight to preserve West Virginia’s Blair Mountain Battlefield has taken a new turn. Preservation advocates thought they had won in March 2009 when the site was formally listed on the federal National Register of Historic Places.…
High Stakes Gamble With Carbon Capture Technologies
By Bill Kovarik A high stakes effort to research carbon dioxide capture and storage (CCS) technology is advancing with almost $2 billion in research and development grants, the Obama administration announced this February. Four projects in West Virginia, Texas, Illinois…
Civil Standoff:
Kennedy and Blankenship Debate Future of Coal By Bill Kovarik A polite but pointed debate showed a wide gulf between environmental and coal industry positions on Appalachia’s environmental woes. The debate was sponsored by the University of Charleston in Charleston,…
TVA’s Environmental Science Reporting Still Sparks Controversy
By Bill Kovarik When the Tennessee Valley Authority released its “Toxics Release Inventory” (TRI) report in December 2009, environmental organizations such as the Environmental Integrity Project expressed concern at the amount of toxins released into the river. According to TVA…
Alexander and Cardin Weigh In On EPA Announcement
Sen. Alexander Sen. Cardin Senators Lamar Alexander (R-TN) and Ben Cardin (D-MD), co-sponsors of The Appalachia Restoration Act, weighed in on the EPA’s announcement Thursday of a new policy to crack down on valley fills associated with mountaintop removal coal mining.…
