Taking Back Tennessee

Team AV Joins Forces to Take Back TN, Push Scenic Vistas Legislation Almost three years ago, we ran a little piece on Tennessee and coal, exposing coal-industry front group FACES of Coal for the false numbers they were giving to legislators, utilities, and to the public. Of course, a week later Appalachian Voices first broke…

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Bad Coal Boyfriend Doesn’t Want Change His Dirty Ways!

Our letter about the EPA’s new Mercury and Air Toxics Rule was published in the Charlotte Observer last week. In response to “EPA limits toxic plant emissions” (Dec. 22): Thanks to EPA, it just got easier to dump that ‘bad boyfriend’ coal The coal industry reminds me of a controlling, abusive boyfriend when it complains…

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BLM/OSM Merger Postponed | Newsbites

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar has announced a postponement of a merger between the Bureau of Land Management and the Office of Surface Mining and Reclamation Enforcement to Feb. 15, 2012. In late October, Salazar announced the proposal and received immediate and staunch criticism. Some argued that the two agencies have little overlap and expressed doubts…

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Appalachian Coal Mining Jobs Reach 14-year High

Increase Comes Despite Arguments that Regulations Kill Jobs Some congressional representatives claim that federal oversight of mountaintop removal mining in Appalachia threatens domestic coal production and the regions coal mining jobs, but new government data indicates the opposite is true. Data released by the Mine Safety and Health Administration show that the number of jobs…

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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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Kentucky Energy and Environment Cabinet cuts deal with Nally and Hamilton for Water Pollution Violations

Last week the Kentucky Energy and Environment Cabinet entered a settlement with Nally and Hamilton Enterprises to resolve tens of thousands of violations of the Clean Water Act. The pending agreed order, originally submitted in September, was signed by the Cabinet Secretary Len Peters, now making it official. Nally and Hamilton is one of the…

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Lisa Jackson has had enough!

In this editorial, published by the Los Angeles Times, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson makes her case for protecting our clean air and water from an unprecedented congressional attack on basic environmental and health safeguards. Join the movement to save our clean water here. ‘Too dirty to fail’? House Republicans’ assault on our environmental…

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