West Virginia

Launches 7 Days That Will Shake Mountaintop Removal Operations

Daring protesters target mountaintop-removal sites 2
Posted 5 months, 2 weeks ago
Four daring protestors visited a mountaintop removal site in West Virginia, scaled a towering 20-story dragline, and unfolded a huge banner: JUST STOP MOUNTAINTOP REMOVAL.
Kinder, Gentler Blasting, Leveling of Mountains, Filling of Streams

Coalfield residents respond to Obama’s announcement on mountaintop removal 1
Posted 5 months, 3 weeks ago
The Obama administration has announced "unprecedented steps to reduce environmental impacts of mountaintop coal mining." Here's what coalfield residents have to say.
Will coal be school vegetable?

West Va. Supreme Court affirms toxic coal silo as wonderful playground 2
Posted 5 months, 3 weeks ago
The West Virginia Supreme Court upheld a lower court's decision to allow the construction of another controversial coal silo within yards of the Marsh Fork Elementary School in the town of Sundial.
Supreme Court rules against coal company accused of buying a West Virginia judge 0
Posted 5 months, 3 weeks ago
After the Massey Energy coal mining company lost a $50 million verdict to a competitor, CEO Don Blankenship spent $3 million electing a friendly judge to West Virginia's Supreme Court of Appeals who went on to cast the deciding vote in a case that overturned the verdict. But yesterday, the U.S. Supreme Court handed a setback to Massey, a company notorious for its reliance on destructive mountaintop removal mining throughout Central Appalachia, with a ruling that elected judges must recuse themselves from cases involving big campaign contributors.
The Grist List: From Koala to Cap

Lingerie model nudie by nature, and more 2
Posted 5 months, 4 weeks ago
Miranda Kerr goes 'au naturel' to save koalas, raising awareness -- and eyebrows.
Who needs teeth when you've got cheap power?

West Virginia celebrates the blessings of a coal-based economy 27
Posted 6 months ago
West Virginia Gov. Joe Manchin has declared coal the official state rock. Here are some suggestions of other ways he could celebrate the blessings coal brings.
Absurdity continues: Activists arrested for 'littering'

Operation Appalachian Spring grows 1
Posted 6 months, 1 week ago
In three separate direct actions in the West Virginia coalfields yesterday, nonviolent protestors launched the new phase of Operation Appalachian Spring, a growing national campaign to stop mountaintop removal mining and raise awareness of the catastrophic potential of government regulated blasting near a coal sludge impoundment.
Liberate Appalachia and Take Primacy

Urgent letter to EPA and Interior Dept. from coalfield residents 2
Posted 6 months, 4 weeks ago
Coalfield residents from West Virginia have issued an extraordinary letter pleading with EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson and Interior Secretary Ken Salazar to halt mountaintop-removal mining.
Wal-Mart disses coal 0
Posted 7 months ago
A Fit of Peak

An interview with ‘Green Nobel’ winner Maria Gunnoe 0
Posted 7 months, 1 week ago
The West Virginia activist talks about the horrors of mountaintop mining, the fierceness of Appalachian mothers, and the unintended motivation that Obama's giving Big Coal.
West Virginia House Committee puts gag order on clean energy resolution

No stinkin’ green jobs or responsible mining debate! 5
Posted 7 months, 3 weeks ago
WV House members just blocked a resolution for the development of a nationally acclaimed industrial wind farm and responsible underground coal mining on Coal River Mountain from going to the floor for an actual debate or vote.
Is Gov. Manchin the new Bilbo?

Where’s the national outrage on Blair Mountain? 3
Posted 7 months, 3 weeks ago
When Walmart recently announced its intention to build a super-center near the Wilderness Battlefield in Virginia, filmmaker Ken Burns and a host of Pulitzer Prize-winning historians denounced the move for its obvious offense to our national heritage site.

We need that same outrage for another battlefield under assault.
Dear Sen. Byrd: Restoring mountains could be your greatest legacy

A plea to West Virginia’s legendary Senator to stop mountaintop removal 1
Posted 7 months, 4 weeks ago
With daily ammonium nitrate/fuel oil explosions from mountaintop removal operations rocking his home and dismantling the mountain above his community, Bo Webb, a Vietnam vet, recently penned an appeal to his West Virginia Sen. Robert Byrd to co-sponsor the Appalachian Mountain Restoration Act to stop mountaintop removal and launch a green jobs initiative in Appalachia.
Myth: Democrats support good climate policy and Republicans oppose it 13
Posted 8 months ago
Energy and climate scramble the usual left-right political divisions. Many of the big fights are not among parties but among regions and levels of government.
What we meant to say ...

EPA issues clarification on mountaintop removal notice 0
Posted 8 months, 1 week ago
One can only wonder whether the following EPA statement regarding its move on mountaintop removal was prompted by some angry phone calls to the agency from certain influential West Virginia lawmakers. In any event, here's what the EPA sent out late Tuesday...
Thirty years of betrayal later, Appalachia can't wait

Dear Nancy Sutley: Get it right on mountaintop removal 0
Posted 8 months, 2 weeks ago
As a new round of explosives shattered the ridges across mountaintop removal mines in Boone and Raleigh counties in West Virginia yesterday, unleashed by a recent U.S. Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals decision, White House Council on Environmental Quality chair Nancy Sutley gave the first indications that the Obama administration plans to act promptly on dealing with the ravages of mountaintop removal in Appalachia.
Big Coal on the ropes

Knock out calls for anti-mountaintop removal bills 0
Posted 8 months, 2 weeks ago
Ain't no mountain high enough: King Coal is on the ropes. Across the nation, anti-mountaintop removal bills are quickly being moved across Capitol Hill and numerous legislatures this week to stop one of the most egregious human rights and environmental violations in modern times.
Power Past Coal communities host anti-coal events during first 100 days of Obama administration 0
Posted 8 months, 3 weeks ago
AEP wants rate increase to make up for revenue loss 0
Posted 8 months, 3 weeks ago
Coal River Mountain sit-in campaign blooms 0
Posted 9 months ago