Scenic Vistas Efforts Becoming Headline News

Tennessee Coal Industry Front Group Falsifies Information In Attacking Church-goers Motives As the Tennessee General Assembly kicked off yesterday, 100s of supporters of our Appalachian Mountains gathered in congregations, gymnasiums, and homes across the state to complete 40 Days of Prayer for the Mountains. The efforts of LEAF, SOCM, Tennessee Conservation Voters and many others…

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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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Seeds of Change Initiative to Improve Access to Local Food

The Boone, N.C.-based non-profit group Blue Ridge Women in Agriculture received a $1.1 million grant from Heifer USA to strengthen the local food system in what is known as the High Country region of North Carolina. The Seeds of Change Initiative is a multi-year program that will build upon the emerging local food movement to…

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Another Nordic Revolution

By Kristian Jackson It’s 5 a.m. and outside the truck, headlights reveal driving snow squalls and drifts as high as the pickup’s hood. Our crawl up Roaring Creek Road near the Toe River of North Carolina comes to a sudden halt in a wall of whiteness. We abandon our attempt to dig out the beast…

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Ghostly Legends Rooted in History

By Molly Moore As fall creeps into Appalachia, a smoky fog drifts through the hollows and wraps trees and church steeples in a ghostly haze. At this time of year, it’s wise to pay attention to the human stories buried in the region’s historical towns and landmarks. Elizabethton, Tenn., one of the earliest permanent settlements…

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Tell Congress We Can’t Afford The Status Quo on Coal Ash!

This Friday, the House of Representatives will vote on H.R. 2273, the Coal Residuals Reuse and Management Act, a bill that puts the profits of coal ash polluters above public health. H.R. 2273 subverts public support of the EPA’s proposed federal coal ash rules by leaving coal ash pollution in the hands of states with…

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Spread the News! Appalachians overwhelmingly oppose mountaintop removal

The following email was sent to the 100,000+ supporters of iLoveMountains.org. To sign up to receive free email alerts, click here. Great news! This week we received the results of a public opinion poll that confirms that voters in Appalachia overwhelmingly want to end mountaintop removal and strengthen protections provided by the Clean Water Act.…

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Across Appalachia

Rays of Solar Progress Peeking Out in Appalachia By Jeff Deal While Appalachia has not yet realized the progress made in solar electricity generation in the United States’ West Coast or Northeast regions, solar energy development within our region is slowly moving forward. The town of Newland, N.C., will host a 900kW solar electric facility…

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A Cup of Arsenic in the Morning Does a Body…Good?

In what some folks would call the “no-duh” factor, the TVA has found contaminated groundwater near some of their coal fired power plant coal ash sites. Following the 2008 coal ash disaster at TVA’s Kingston Fossil Plant in Harriman, Tenn., the topic of toxicity in coal ash has raged hotter than a coal-stoked furnace. According…

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