Dirty Coal | Grist

Watch a movie, fight mountaintop mining

Host a viewing party for the must-see new film “Coal Country” 2
Posted 1 month ago The powerful new documentary “Coal Country” exposes the devastating effects of mountaintop-removal coal mining. See the movie before the general public does by offering to host a viewing party in your home.
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.
National Day of Action Against Coal 0
Posted 1 month, 3 weeks ago The first three days of this week are seeing a slew of activities taking on coal.
sweeping ACCCE clean

Dominoes Keep Falling for Clean Coal Coalition 1
Posted 2 months, 1 week ago
Only a week after the nation's third largest utility, Duke Energy, announced it was terminating its membership in the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity (ACCCE), citing disagreement over clean energy legislation, another company has followed suit.
now is the time, al gore

Coalfield uprising and heroes need national defense, green jobs 0
Posted 2 months, 3 weeks ago
Now is the time for all good greens, rednecks, social entrepreneurs, hellraisers, Repower America and Al Gore to come to the aid of their fellow citizens in the Appalachian coalfields.
the little engine that couldn't

Persistence stops a train—and global warming slowed 6
Posted 2 months, 3 weeks ago
A massive new rail line planned to move millions of tons of low-grade coal from northeastern Wyoming to the Midwest has been stopped.
Fearless Protest Shuts Down Mountaintop Removal Blasting

Tree-sitters do environmental regulators’ job 1
Posted 2 months, 4 weeks ago
In a stunning blow to mountaintop removal blasting operations in the Coal River Valley of West Virginia this morning, two fearless protesters scaled massive trees and unfurled banners from their 80-foot-high platforms. Within 300 feet of the Massey Energy's Edwight mountaintop removal blasting site, above Pettry Bottom and Peachtree in Raleigh County, W. Va., the protesters called on the federal agencies to crack down on the scandal-ridden West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection (WV DEP) and the stop the unsafe and reckless blasting in the area.
coal creeps up

The clock has started ticking on mountaintop removal mining permits 0
Posted 3 months ago
We are told that the Environmental Protection Agency may start approving more than 80 new mountaintop removal coal mining permits within the next month -- or even sooner.
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.
VICTORY

Dynegy out of the new coal business 0
Posted 3 months, 1 week ago
Coal is again proving to be a bad investment. Dynegy announced yesterday that the company is essentially going to lose $100 million as it sells its portion of the Texas Sandy Creek coal plant back to LS Power. But they decided a $100 million loss was better than continuing to be involved in the expensive and risky project.
Let Them Eat Coal Ash

OSMRE nominee Pizarchik must be stopped 1
Posted 3 months, 2 weeks ago
With so many qualified candidates for the directorship of the important Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement, why is the Obama administration nominating a controversial advocate for coal ash dumping, who also admits he still needs to learn more about the even more controversial and huge issue of mountaintop removal?
Don't get burned

JP Morgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon: Time to walk the talk on coal 0
Posted 3 months, 2 weeks ago
JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon professes profound concern for our future. He waxes eloquent talking about how JP Morgan Chase is committed to investments in clean energy. But Sierra Club’s diligent researchers have pulled back the curtain and uncovered that his rhetoric doesn’t match his company’s action.
This little coal-fired light of mine

Religious leaders call for end to mountaintop removal 0
Posted 3 months, 3 weeks ago
As the brilliant lights of the White House shine across Pennsylvania Avenue Monday evening, generated by a coal-fired plant that uses coal stripmined from devastating mountaintop removal operations in Appalachia, religious leaders and organizations representing over 45 million Americans from across the country will hold a special candlelight prayer vigil at 7pm in Lafayette Park.
removing mountaineers from mountaintop removal debate

Does CEQ-EPA regulatory banter abet historicide? 0
Posted 4 months ago
Mired in the acrobatics of regulatory doublespeak, the Obama administration's increasing oversight of the unbearable daily toll on Appalachian coalfield residents from mountaintop removal begs the question: Are Obama's well-meaning but irresolute environmental administrators abetting the crimes of human rights violations and historicide?
Former president should visit mountaintop removal site

Jimmy Carter’s next big green adventure 1
Posted 4 months ago
Never has Carter's hands-on determination for economic revival and reconciliation between divided communities been more needed in the most polarized part of our country--the devastated coalfields of Appalachia.
Coal Country film premiere

Big Coal does not want you to see this film 1
Posted 4 months, 3 weeks ago
As a groundbreaking clean energy counterpart to this summer's extraordinary Food, Inc. documentary on the agribusiness, the long-awaited "Coal Country" film on the cradle-to-grave process of generating our coal-fired electricity will be hitting the theaters this week with the big bang of an ammonium nitrate/fuel oil explosive. And Big Coal ain't happy.
Reckoning at Coal River

Will media and nation bear witness to coalfield tragedy this week? 2
Posted 5 months ago
A historic reckoning is taking place on Coal River in West Virginia this week -- and in Washington, DC, on Thursday.
Kinder, Gentler Blasting, Leveling of Mountains, Filling of Streams

Coalfield residents respond to Obama’s announcement on mountaintop removal 1
Posted 5 months, 1 week ago
The Obama administration has announced "unprecedented steps to reduce environmental impacts of mountaintop coal mining." Here's what coalfield residents have to say.
What Would Ansel Adams Do?

Should Wilderness Society strip Rahall of award? 0
Posted 5 months, 2 weeks ago
US Representative Nick Rahall (D-WV) is an eco-hero to many on Capitol Hill. But all of his laudable accomplishments notwithstanding, one truth remains: Over the past 30 years, Rep. Rahall has overseen one of the most egregious environmental and human rights violations in the nation: Mountaintop removal.