Appalachia | Grist

An Appalachian tale 3
Posted 1 week ago Novelist and West Virginia native Ann Pancake wonders whether the recent media spotlight on mountaintop removal mining will help halt decades of destruction in the rugged region she calls home.
Blasting begins on Coal River Mountain

The True Impact of Coal Mining 0
Posted 3 weeks, 1 day ago
Coal River Mountain protests spread across the nation 1
Posted 3 weeks, 1 day ago As millions of pounds of explosions rip across their mountain communities, scores of residents from the Appalachian coalfields have joined with supporters from across the country in a series of sit-ins, die-ins, protests, and a haunting "Day of the Dead" funeral procession and sit-in in the courtyard of the headquarters of the EPA.
Join the Green Jobs Vs. Big Coal Showdown

Battle at Coal River Mountain explodes 1
Posted 3 weeks, 6 days ago An extremely organized and growing coalfield uprising movement against mountaintop removal has marked a line in the sand on Coal River Mountain as the ultimate battleground to stop mountaintop removal and launch President Obama's clean energy jobs program.
Historic game changer

Will EPA veto or regulate the plunder of Appalachia? 1
Posted 1 month ago In a historic move, Lisa Jackson's EPA threw down the gauntlet on mountaintop removal mining last Friday -- after they had just compromised on another massively destructive mountaintop removal operation.
Will Manchin Defend Coalfield Residents or Absentee Big Coal?

Coalfield uprising leads to arrests at W.Va. gov’s office 6
Posted 1 month ago As a supportive crowd sang, "This land is your land, this land is my land," seven peaceful sit-in activists were arrested in Governor Joe Manchin's office at the West Virginia state capitol Monday evening. The act of civil disobedience was made in protest of current mountaintop removal coal mining practices.
Shoutin' Down the Army Corps Hearing on Mountaintop Removal

Should the Department of Justice investigate Big Coal bedlam? 1
Posted 1 month, 1 week ago While their profits continue to soar amid job losses, Big Coal let loose the hounds of chaos and hatred at last night's Army Corps of Engineers public hearing in West Virginia on mountaintop removal permits.
Citizens welcome return to sound science, sanity

EPA to hold 79 mountaintop removal permits for further review 0
Posted 2 months, 1 week ago
In a move that pleased environmentalists and coalfield residents in central and southern Appalachia, the EPA recommended that none of the 79 permits associated with mountaintop removal coal mining be streamlined for approval.
Stop In the Name of Law

EPA says pending mountaintop-removal permits would likely violate Clean Water Act 9
Posted 2 months, 1 week ago
Very big news out of the Environmental Protection Agency this morning: The agency has determined that all 79 mountaintop-removal mining permits submitted to it for review by the Army Corps of Engineers would violate the Clean Water Act.
Blast It, EPA: Make a Decision Already!

A moment of truth for Appalachia, Obama and EPA on mountaintop removal coal mining 4
Posted 2 months, 1 week ago
$50,000 bail for jailed protesters

VIDEO: Weeklong Mountaintop-removal Tree-sit Ends 1
Posted 2 months, 3 weeks ago
Tree-sitting protesters in mountain-removal country have come back down to the ground -- but the fight continues.
time to change "friends and family" selections

Verizon sponsors climate-change-denying mountaintop-removal rally? 22
Posted 2 months, 3 weeks ago
Do 87 million Verizon Wireless customers, stockholders, and its Public Policy Development and Corporate Responsibility Department know that their company is a cosponsor of next week's climate change–denying, union-busting, pro–mountaintop removal rally organized by Massey Energy in Logan, W.Va.?
Face lift

Who are the faces behind FACES of Coal? 5
Posted 3 months ago
Yet another pro-coal group has popped up to rally folks against climate action. The Federation for American Coal, Energy and Security -- or FACES of Coal -- joins a growing list of "grassroots" groups formed to support fossil fuels.
Are you with Don Blankenship or against him?

We are all from Wise County 2
Posted 3 months ago
Want to get really angry about health care and global warming? Not the ginned-up rage of the Obama-was-really-born-in-Kenya crowd, but an anger that fires you up to take action in the name of justice? Anger like the rage felt by so many white Northerners and Southerners in 1963 when they saw Birmingham's fire hoses turned on patriotic African-Americans, a rage so profound that they too joined the civil rights revolution?

Well I invite you, in a brief audio and video tour, to bear witness to what's happening in Wise County, Virginia.
Appalachian Voices Crunches the EIA Numbers

News: Big coal juice down, plummets to 42.6% 0
Posted 3 months ago
Interesting news arrived from Appalachian Voices, the North Carolina-based organization that is one of most creative and effective national leaders in the campaign to get beyond Big Coal.
wake up call to confront Big Coal denial

Rep. Hechler to Greens: We need more hellraisers 2
Posted 3 months, 1 week ago
Tragic lessons in history remind us that the coal crisis and its deniers call for more hellraisers, not compromise.
Letter from Europe

Foreign disbelief of topless America 3
Posted 3 months, 3 weeks ago
It's hard for any foreigner to believe that President Obama has quietly acquiesced to the marketing and machinations of Big Coal, and allows millions of pounds of ammonium nitrate/fuel oil explosives to rip across our nation's first frontier, topple hundreds of mountains, and ruin and displace historic mountain communities. In fact, when I describe the process of mountaintop removal, and its 38-year reign of terror in Appalachia, no one believes me, so I am compelled to pull out my laptop and show them pictures and videos.
West Virginia, Kentucky miners boycott Tennessee over proposed mountaintop removal restrictions 3
Posted 3 months, 3 weeks ago
There will be no more excursions to Dollywood for Roger Horton, a coal miner who lives in West Virginia -- at least not until U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) drops legislation he's sponsoring that would limit mountaintop removal mining.
West Virginia redefines dirty energy as “alternative” 2
Posted 4 months, 1 week ago
In the recent legislative session, Gov. Joe Manchin (D) championed and state lawmakers approved an energy portfolio standard bill requiring 25% of generation to come from "alternative and renewable" sources by 2025. But the new standard, which goes into effect this month, has defined "alternative" to include natural gas, old tires, coal gas and even waste coal.
Southern boy don't need them around anyhow

Are the South and the Midwest splitting on energy? 2
Posted 4 months, 3 weeks ago
What you see in the Waxman-Markey House vote is the beginning of a dynamic I expect to accelerate in coming years: the divergence of the South (specifically coal-mining Appalachia) and the Midwest on energy politics.