Mining And Drilling

Blasting begins on Coal River Mountain

The True Impact of Coal Mining 0
Posted 3 weeks ago
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.?
Meet power rock and his sidekick spurt

Coal coloring book teaches kids all about dirty energy 8
Posted 3 months ago
We found a terrible children's coloring book made by a coal-industry group. Let’s have a look!
A FARCE TO BE RECKONED WITH

Families not allowed in ‘families for coal’ group 0
Posted 3 months ago
Families Organized to Represent the Coal Economy (FORCE, naturally) is a Pennsylvania-based pro-coal organization. Oh, and by the way, by "families" the group doesn't actually mean families.
parliament fights coal, tribes fight mountaintop removal

India says: Take this mine and shove it 0
Posted 3 months ago
Members of parliament in India from various political parties put aside their differences and called on the Prime Minister to stop a coal mine in a forest reserve.
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.
Coal is the enemy of the human race, pant-wetting terror edition

Blackout: Heinberg on dwindling coal reserves and the siren song of “clean coal” 13
Posted 3 months, 3 weeks ago
There isn't nearly as much coal left as most people think. "Clean coal" will run down limited reserves even faster. If humanity doesn't begin massive, sustained investment in renewable power sources immediately, civilization could be at risk before the end of the century. And that's without considering the impacts of climate change. Such is the stark conclusion of Richard Heinberg's Blackout: Coal, Climate and the Last Energy Crisis, which despite its dry tone and technical complexity is one of the scariest f*cking books I've ever read.
Obama’s environmental adviser talks coal and mountaintop mining 1
Posted 4 months, 4 weeks ago
If you could CEQ her now

Coal is here to stay, says Obama’s chief environmental adviser 2
Posted 4 months, 4 weeks ago
"Clearly coal is a part of our energy mix now and it's likely to be so in the future," says Nancy Sutley, chair of the White House Council on Environmental Quality. In an exclusive interview, she also talks about economic stimulus, green jobs, and mountaintop-removal mining. Watch the video and read the highlights.
EPA chief on mountaintop mining, climate, and more 0
Posted 5 months ago
Action Jackson

EPA chief Lisa Jackson on mountaintop removal, climate legislation, toxics, and more 3
Posted 5 months ago
The EPA can't stop mountaintop-removal mining under current law, EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson tells Grist. In an exclusive interview, she also talks about climate legislation, toxics, environmental justice, and what it's like to be part of Obama's "green Cabinet." Watch the video and read the highlights.
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.
Launches 7 Days That Will Shake Mountaintop Removal Operations

Daring protesters target mountaintop-removal sites 2
Posted 5 months 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.
Supreme Court rules against coal company accused of buying a West Virginia judge 0
Posted 5 months, 2 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.
Virginia OKs uranium mining study 29
Posted 6 months ago
A proposal to mine uranium in south-central Virginia advanced this week when a key state body approved a study of the matter. Virginia has banned uranium mining for the past 25 years.
Runaway Joe

Debate: Roberts v. ‘clean coal’ flack Joe Lucas 0
Posted 6 months, 1 week ago
Here's an online debate between me and clean coal spokesflack Joe Lucas, originally run by the PBS show NOW.
A Fit of Peak

An interview with ‘Green Nobel’ winner Maria Gunnoe 0
Posted 7 months 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.