Church “Shares the Plate” with App Voices

Appalachian Voices recently had the honor of being chosen for Allegheny Unitarian Universalist Church’s “Share The Plate” program, in which the Pittsburgh, Pa., church donates 50 percent of their quarterly tithings to a justice-related nonprofit. After seeing an Appalachian Treasures presentation organized by local activist Shane Freeman, the Reverend David McFarland and the church board…

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Tennessee Office Making Ground with State Legislature, TVA

In Tennessee, our staff is currently working with the state legislature to pass the Scenic Vistas Protection Act, a bill that would ban high elevation surface mining techniques such as mountaintop removal in the mountains of eastern Tennessee. In collaboration with partners across the state, we are building relationships with key members of the House…

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Blair Community Center and Museum Needs Your Support

By Madison Hinshaw, Communications Editorial Intern in Spring 2012. If you’ve ever heard of Blair Mountain, you know the turmoil it has been through in the last several decades. Now this historic mountain and its battlegrounds are being threatened by surface strip mining. That’s why the Blair Community Center and Museum needs your support! The…

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Sewanee Coal Seam Prohibition Bill Introduced in TN

Tennessee State Senator Berke and Representative McDonald Introduce Legislation That Will Protect Tennessee’s Mountains, Waters, and Public Health. Appalachian Voices Urges TN Legislature to Support This Bill. Appalachian Voices and other allies across Tennessee, including “Statewide Organizing For Community eMpowerment” (i.e. “SOCM“) were successful in working with the Tennessee Legislature to file a bill that…

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TN Governor Can Lead Tennessee Away from Mountaintop Removal

Tennessee Governor Bill Haslam opposed mountaintop removal during his gubernatorial campaign. Now is the time for him to put action to those words Appalachian Voices is working around the clock to pass the Tennessee Scenic Vistas legislation. This bill would make Tennessee the first state to ban mountaintop removal by ending surface mining over 2,000…

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Thanks, Allegheny Unitarian Universalist Church!

Appalachian Voices recently had the honor of being inducted into the Allegheny Unitarian Universalist Church’s Share The Plate program, in which the church donates 50% of their quarterly tithings to a justice-related nonprofit. Our longtime field staff member Austin Hall was on hand last weekend to accept the church’s generous $1,250 check. During his first…

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Rally to Save Ison Rock

Hundreds of citizens gathered at U.S. Environmental Protection Agency headquarters in Washington, D.C., on Nov. 16 to call on the EPA and White House to block a proposed mountaintop removal permit that would destroy Ison Rock Ridge in Wise County, Va. More than 2,000 residents living in the five communities that surround the mountain would…

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Nally & Hamilton Case Continues in State Court

Yesterday Appalachian Voices along with our partners Kentucky Riverkeeper, Kentuckians For The Commonwealth, and Waterkeeper Alliance challenged the recent settlement between Nally & Hamilton and the Kentucky Energy and Environment Cabinet in state court. Click here to see the press release with more information on this newest development. Click here to see the how the…

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Groups Challenge Public’s Exclusion From Secret Negotiations

An agreement negotiated in secret between the Beshear administration and a major polluter in eastern Kentucky does little to protect the public or prevent future violations, claimed several groups representing Kentucky citizens who use water polluted by the company’s coal mining operations.

The citizens’ groups filed a petition in Franklin Circuit Court on Thursday asking that the agreement between Nally & Hamilton Enterprises and the Kentucky Energy and Environment Cabinet be vacated on the grounds that there is “no factual evidence in the record, much less substantial evidence, [that] supports a finding that the Agreed Order is a fair resolution of Nally’s thousands of [Clean Water Act] violations, or that it will be an effective deterrent of future violations.”

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