Renewing the Push for Renewable Energy in Virginia

Each year, as Virginia’s General Assembly convenes, lawmakers are confronted with hundreds of proposals running the gamut from education to energy. Many involve complicated issues, and many are distorted by corporate interests and political posturing. This year the legislature is grappling with a key renewable energy law, known as the Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS), which…

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New Report Explores the Frontiers of Energy Efficiency

After combing through the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy’s far-reaching report, Frontiers of Energy Efficiency: Next Generation Programs Reach for High Energy Savings, it would be hard not to have high hopes for a more efficient future. Surveying 22 residential, commercial and industrial energy savings programs, the Frontiers of Energy Efficiency report estimates that…

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The New Faces and Issues of North Carolina

THE NEW FACES For the first time since 1870, the Republican party controls both the executive and legislative branches in North Carolina government. With the General Assembly sporting veto-proof majorities in both its chambers, and Pat McCrory’s election making him the state’s first Republican governor in 20 years, the political landscape in North Carolina has…

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A Clean(er) World

By Molly Moore No country is an energy island. In the face of a European Union sanction that bans steel imports, Iran is using roundabout trading methods to secure metallurgical coal, used in steel manufacturing, from Ukraine. A state-backed firm in Abu Dhabi plans to invest in Saudi Arabia’s growing renewable energy efforts. And in…

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Organizational Round-Up

Showing Some Clean Water Love On October 18, shortly after we go to press, the Clean Water Act will turn 40 years old. In conjunction with that anniversary, our Red, White & Water team is putting together a report on the successes of the long-standing program, complete with personal stories of residents and communities who…

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Two School Districts Go Green to Save Green

By Toby MacDermott North Adams Elementary is one of the greenest schools in southeast Ohio. With solar panels on the roof, wild turkeys roaming the grounds, and a design based on LEED, or Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, standards, this school exemplifies sustainability in action. But this building is not alone. The entire Adams…

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Welcome to Virginia’s Energy Conference, with your host King Coal

Last week, Appalachian Voices and members of the Wise Energy for Virginia Coalition attended the Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell’s Energy Conference. Looking at the agenda, we were prepared for what would surely be a biased conference. But we didn’t know it would be this bad. At every stage of the conference, the coal companies and…

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