With federal infrastructure money on the way, advocates release recommendations for most effective abandoned mine lands investments

CONTACT: Dan Radmacher, (540) 798-6683, dan@appvoices.org Trey Pollard, (202) 904-9187, trey@pollardcommunications.com APPALACHIA – Today, the Biden Administration announced that nearly $725 million in Fiscal Year 2022 abandoned mine land (AML) funding secured in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act will be available to 22 states and the Navajo Nation. With these significant new federal investments…

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Appalachian Voices joins coalition to legally defend stream protections, community health

Contact: Thom Kay, Senior Legislative Representative, 864-580-1843, thom.kay [at] appvoices.org Cat McCue, Communications Director, 434-293-6373, cat [at] appvoices.org Washington DC – A coalition of local and national community and conservation groups, including Appalachian Voices, yesterday filed a motion to participate in two lawsuits that seek to undermine the Stream Protection Rule. The rule, an update…

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Appalachian Voices testifies before Senate panel on coal-mining rule

Contact: Matt Wasson, Program Director, 828-773-0799, matt@appvoices.org Cat McCue, Communications Director, 434-293-6373, cat@appvoices.org Appalachian Voices Director of Programs Matt Wasson, Ph.D., is testifying tomorrow morning before the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works at a hearing on the implications and environmental impacts of the Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement’s draft Stream Protection…

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Impoundment Safety Called Into Question | Stream Buffer Zone Delay

Questions and criticism followed a Nov. 30 accident at a CONSOL Energy-operated coal slurry impoundment in West Virginia that left one worker dead. A few days after the incident, The Charleston Gazette reported that records “outlined company concerns that construction to enlarge the dump had not been moving fast enough to keep up with slurry…

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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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