Posts Tagged ‘energy’
Home Energy Contest Reveals Pressing Need in Western NC
Residents spend three times national average on energy bills Contact: Rory McIlmoil, Energy Policy Director, 828-262-1500, rory@appvoices.org Sarah Kellogg, North Carolina Field Organizer, 828-262-1500, sarah@appvoices.org Boone, N.C. — In announcing the three winners of its “High Country Home Energy Makeover Contest” today, Appalachian Voices said that the need for residential energy efficiency improvements in one…
Read MoreEnergy Industry Overstated Predictions of Price Spikes
By Brian Sewell The energy industry’s record of overestimating electricity price spikes as a result of pollution controls dates back 40 years, according to an analysis by the Center for American Progress. As a result of the 1990 Clean Air Act amendments, the Edison Electric Institute, an association of investor-owned utilities, estimated double-digit rate increases…
Read MoreEnergy Efficiency Offers Promise of Lower Electric Bills
By Brian Sewell Even as residential energy efficiency improves, the impact of home energy costs on low-income families in the Southeast has become more severe since the turn of the century, according to a report by Appalachian Voices. The report, titled “Poverty and the Burden of Electricity Costs in the Southeast,” found that in 2001…
Read MoreOSM Investigates WV Mining Law Enforcement
By Brian Sewell The federal Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement announced on Dec. 30 that it will investigate West Virginia’s surface coal mining regulatory program. The announcement comes six months after the Citizen Action for Real Enforcement campaign — a coalition of 18 state and national organizations — held a press conference and…
Read MoreNew Campaign to Bring Clean Energy to Virginia
On Aug. 27, Appalachian Voices and partners in the Wise Energy for Virginia Coalition launched “New Power for the Old Dominion,” a statewide campaign to urge electric providers, energy policy officials and state lawmakers to increase investment in cleaner energy generation in the state.
Read MoreMajor Efficiency Bill Stalled in the Senate
By Brian Sewell Since being introduced to the Senate in July, the Energy Savings and Industrial Competitiveness Act, also known as Shaheen-Portman (S. 1392), promised to be the first major energy bill passed by the Senate in more than six years. Hours after debate began on the bill, however, that possibility diminished with the addition…
Read MoreSolar and Wind Projects Take Off Across Appalachia
First Utility-Scale Solar Projects Proposed in West Virginia By Brian Sewell Solar Thin Films Inc., a New York-based company, recently announced a contract to develop up to 35 megawatts of solar capacity in West Virginia. Through an agreement with property owner Tri-State Solar, the solar developer plans to install three sites in Alderson, Crawley and…
Read MoreNew Research and Lawsuits Keep Mountaintop Removal in the Spotlight
By Brian Sewell While battles over mountaintop removal permits reach their boiling point and lawsuits are filed and settled, new research revealing the environmental costs continues to pile up. In September, a study by Duke University, Kent State University and the Cary Institute for Ecosystem Studies compared the environmental toll of mountaintop removal to the…
Read MoreA 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…
Read MoreThe Dirty Money Dozen
According to both the Center for Responsive Politics and Oil Change International, contributions from oil, gas and other energy industries skyrocketed in the past five years, with the coal industry alone contributing more than $8 million in 2009-2010 — more than twice what the industry had contributed in any previous election cycle. And during 2011,…
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