Appalachian Treasures on tour out West!

By Appalachian Voices | March 23, 2012 |

By Kate Finneran Appalachian Voices National Field Coordinator, 2011-12 The Appalachian Treasures Tour is out West right now! Our own Lenny Kohm is out on the road in Arizona currently and headed to Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Fullerton, and then Northern California! Click here for upcoming tour dates. In order to bring the country together…

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Kentucky Surface Water: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

By Erin Savage | March 22, 2012 |

Depending on what you have heard about eastern Kentucky, or your own experiences there, you may have different impressions of Appalachian streams around the area. Some may envision picturesque creeks running through green valleys, while others may think of bright orange “streams” running over rip-rock. Unfortunately, bright orange streams are commonplace in eastern Kentucky. The…

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Close Calls as Congress Defeats Rollbacks to EPA Boiler Rule and Speed-up of Keystone XL Pipeline

By Brian Sewell | March 14, 2012 |

Get ready, because a hostile hive of lobbyists echoing industry cries that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is no more than big government, job-killing, mean, green machine may have just been shaken up again. On Thurs., March 8, Congress narrowly defeated an amendment to a transportation funding bill authored by Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) that…

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Big Coal’s Assault on Property Rights

By Tom Cormons | March 13, 2012 |

Big Coal’s audacity can be astounding. For years, the coal company Consol has been dumping toxic wastewater into mined-out underground mines in Buchanan County, Virginia, without the consent of the owners of the property where these old mines are located. In 2008, the Virginia Supreme Court ruled that this is an illegal trespass against the…

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Coal-fired Generation Falls to 40 Percent

By AV's Intern Team | March 12, 2012 |

By Madison Hinshaw, Communications Editorial Intern in Spring 2012. This just in: Despite the coal industry’s misleading commercials, coal no longer provides 50 percent of all energy in the U.S.! The U.S. Energy Information Administration recently released data showing that coal’s share of total monthly generation fell below 40 percent in November and December 2011…

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AV Testifies in Congress

By Appalachian Voices | March 6, 2012 |

Today, Appalachian Voices’ Director of Programs, Dr. Matt Wasson, is testifying before the Congressional Subcommittee on Energy and Mineral Resources. Follow us on Twitter! The hearing begins at 10 a.m. EST, and you can view the hearing homepage and watch the LIVE video feed here. The majority of this committee has been pushing a coal-industry…

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URGENT: Don’t Let Big Coal Poison Virginia’s Groundwater!

By Appalachian Voices | March 5, 2012 |

A dirty bill in the Virginia General Assembly is bad news for the health of Virginia’s groundwater. We urgently need to show state senators that clean water for the Commonwealth is more important than cost-cutting measures for the coal industry! A bill, HB 710, has been introduced into the Virginia General Assembly that would allow…

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The Unhealthy Culture of Coal

By Jamie Goodman | February 21, 2012 |

The latest in a round of studies on health and well-being in the coal-bearing regions of Appalachia was released in mid-February, with the puzzling conclusion that, while coal mining may not directly contribute to health problems in Appalachia, it still plays a significant role in the health problems in Appalachia. Borak’s study claims that the…

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