Posts Tagged ‘appalachia’
On the Right Side of the Law
By Molly Moore From the gallery of the Kentucky State Capitol, lawyer Wes Addington and a group of women from eastern Kentucky — mostly widows of coal miners — watched the Kentucky House pass a bill expanding legal and safety protections for state miners. The women had advocated tirelessly in support of the law, and…
Read MoreLost on the Road to Oblivion: Art Exhibit Focuses on the Vanishing Beauty of Coal Country
For the past 18 years, photographer Carl Galie has devoted his artistic talents to conservation work, and his latest exhibit is no exception. “Lost on the Road To Oblivion: The Vanishing Beauty of Coal Country,” tackles the difficult and poignant subject of mountaintop removal coal mining in Appalachia. The exhibit is on display at Appalachian State University’s Turchin Center for the Visual Arts through Feb. 7, 2014.
Appalachia’s Economic Transition is Underway: Three Broad Strategies to Get Us There
{ Editor’s Note } Anthony Flaccavento is a regional leader in sustainable agriculture, local foods and their overlap with economic development. This is the second part of a post on building a stronger regional economy in Appalachia. Click here to read the first part. Last week, I briefly described three key questions to frame the…
Read MoreChoose Your Own [Historical] Adventure: An Appalachian Travel Guide
By Rachel Ellen Simon — Editorial Communications Intern, Fall 2013 A graduate student in Appalachian Studies, Rachel was a frequent contributor to The Appalachian Voice and worked as our Editorial Communications intern for Fall 2013. When my editor first asked me to compile a list of “Historical Hidden Treasures,” I imagined my words guiding readers…
Read MoreAnthony Flaccavento: Appalachia’s Economic Transition is Underway
{ Editor’s Note } Appalachian Voices is pulling up another chair to the Front Porch. Through our new guest blog feature, we’ll regularly invite influential voices to reflect on issues you care about — mountaintop removal, clean water, and promoting a strong, healthy economy and environment for communities in Appalachia and the Southeast. To kick…
Read MoreAppalachian Coal Losing Another Customer: Eastern Kentucky as a Case Study
The Tennessee Valley Authority’s Paradise Fossil Plant sits on the banks of western Kentucky’s Green River. The largest coal plant in the state, Paradise consumes approximately 7.3 million tons per year — none of which comes from Central Appalachian coal mines. Although TVA recently announced it was cutting almost all of its use of Central…
Read MoreAppalachian Coal Losing Another Customer: High Prices Push Utilities to Competing Reserves
We posted a piece yesterday about the retirement plans for Brayton Point Power Station in Massachusetts – the most modern coal-fired power plant in New England – and how some are calling its eventual closure a death knell for coal in the Northeast. Or, as Jonathan Peress of the Conservation Law Foundation said in a…
Read MoreAppalachia’s Contested History
By Bill Kovarik It has been 50 years since Harry Caudill wrote “Night Comes to the Cumberlands,” a landmark history that rejected stereotypes of Appalachian people as backward hillbillies and described the ruthless exploitation they suffered. The book spoke with eloquence to the American conscience and set off a firestorm of controversy. Within a year,…
Read MoreTraditions of Resistance:
Lessons from the struggle for justice in Appalachia By Molly Moore In 1964, a 61-year-old Kentucky woman, Ollie “Widow” Combs, sat in front of a bulldozer to halt the strip-mining of the steep land above her home. She spent that Thanksgiving in jail, and a photograph of Combs being hauled away landed on major papers…
Read MoreA Waterfall and a View at Bad Branch State Nature Preserve
By Dana Kuhnline Bad Branch Falls near Whitesburg, Ky., was one of the first hikes I experienced when I moved to Appalachia almost 10 years ago. I happened to be chaperoning two vans full of at-risk teenagers on a weekend trip from West Virginia to Whitesburg. The last stop before heading home was this hike.…
Read More