Posts Tagged ‘Coal’
More clean energy and less coal ash waste ahead for Asheville
Asheville, N.C., harbors a lively community that has united to push for clean energy and to put an end to Duke Energy’s polluting ways. Two wins came this week for Asheville residents when the City Council voted to increase investments in clean energy and, the next day, the N.C. Department of Environment and Natural Resources…
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 MoreIn Wake of Shutdown, Polls Point to Congress’s Unpopularity and Public Support of EPA
Two recent polls reveal that North Carolinians and Virginians strongly approve of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s plans to regulate carbon emissions from new power plants and the agency’s role in protecting clean air and water for all Americans. According to a Public Policy Polling survey of 803 North Carolinians commissioned by the Natural Resources…
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 MoreAppalachian Coal Losing Another Customer: New England’s Largest Coal Plant to Close
The Brayton Point Power Station, a 1,600-megawatt power plant in Massachusetts and New England’s largest coal-burning facility, has been in operation for nearly 50 years. But recently it started to seem like no one wanted to be responsible for the aging plant. Yesterday, the plant’s owner announced plans to retire Brayton Point by May 2017.…
Read MoreTenn Tuesday: SEJ, CAPP Coal Decline, Record Hydro!
Now, with even *more* Chattanooga! Happy Tuesday! A whole mess of Appalachian Voices’ staff spent most of last week and the weekend at the Society of Environmental Journalists conference in one of the greatest cities in America — Chattanooga, Tenn. The Scenic City, has the world’s fastest internet, the first LEED-Platinum certified factory at the…
Read MoreFederal Court Orders EPA to Move Forward on Coal Ash Regulations
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Washington, D.C. – A federal judge agreed with environmental and public health groups that the Environmental Protection Agency needs to set federal regulations for the safe and proper disposal of toxic coal ash. A copy of the judge’s order can be found here: http://earthjustice.org/sites/default/files/files/RCRA_NOI_Order.pdf The groups filed the lawsuit in April 2012…
Read MoreMountaintop Removal in a Nutshell: Tremendous Environmental Capital Spent for Modest Energy Gains
We talk a lot about the external costs of mountaintop removal. And by understanding the true costs that coal puts off on the landscapes, water and communities of Central Appalachia, it’s abundantly clear that the costs far outweigh the benefits to all but a few. But still we hear arguments about the need for a…
Read MoreHow Far Can Touting “Sustainable Coal” Get You?
A few weeks ago, we heard of a new coal lobbying group (I know, just the thing the world needs) that aims to support something we have not heard of, something called “sustainable coal.” Formed by current and former Democratic members of the U.S House of Representatives, along with several coal lobbyists, CoalBlue aims to…
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