Progress and Setbacks for Appalachia’s Environment

Asheville City Council Approves Clean Energy Resolution In October, the city council of Asheville, N.C., unanimously approved a resolution to phase out the city’s use of coal-fired electricity and increase power generated from cleaner sources and saved through energy efficiency. Led by local citizen groups including the Western North Carolina Alliance and the Asheville Beyond…

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Plundering Private Property Rights

By Paige Campbell Half a dozen generations ago, when a coal-mining boom first enticed southwest Virginians to sell the rights to minerals beneath their land, the deal they were making concerned the coal itself. At least, that’s how Virginia’s courts have defined mineral ownership through most of the state’s mining history. But on April 9,…

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