Learn more about Music on the Mountains here

The Music on the Mountaintop festival is only a few short weeks away… Have you got your tickets?!

Yes? You’re Amazing. No? Go get em!

This year the all-star lineup includes Stillwater, New Jersey natives Railroad Earth. Borrowing their name from the Jack Kerouac short story “October in the Railroad Earth,” the group thrives in a live environment. Combining bluegrass, rock, jazz, and celtic textures, the act makes good use of improvisation, while respecting classic song structures and thoughtful lyricism. It all adds up to thrilling and captivating performances and they’re coming to Boone!

Hear em for yourself via Facebook

Not only are the members bonafide musicians, they’re also doing their part to raise awareness about environmental issues. They’ve even got their own environmental blog called The Forecast on their website! Very cool.

Music on the Mountaintop is also doing its part to promote the environment. The are organizing a river clean up on the New, employing solar staging technology, shuttling festival goers, composting trash, and hosting a food drive. Yea! In addition, Appalachian Voices is honored to be receiving a percentage of the festival’s 2010 proceeds!
Learn more about the festivals green cred here

And get those tickets!

Railroad Earth currently includes Todd Sheaffer (guitar, vocals), Tim Carbone (violin, accordian, electric guitar, vocals), John Skehan (mandolin, bouzouki, vocals), And Goessling (acoustic guitars, banjo, dobro, mandolin, flute, pennywhistle, saxophones, vocals), Carey Harmon (drums, hand percussion, vocals), and Andrew Altman (bass, vocals).

The group has recorded and released five albums. Including:

The Black Bear Sessions (2001)
Bird in a House (2002)
The Good Life (2004)
Elko (2006)
Amen Corner (2008)

Learn more about Railroad Earth on their website!
Learn more about Music on the Mountains here!

By Brittney Baker

After being offered (and accepting!) the Outreach Assistant position I was eager to start my internship at Appalachian Voices. Finally, in mid-May I started my position. Throughout my position I have learned, worked hard, and have constantly been amazed and impressed at the talented staff and supporters of Appalachian Voices.

Appalachian Treasures Tour
The first task I was assigned was to schedule an advocacy tour throughout the state of Pennsylvania to educate citizens about mountaintop removal coal mining. This involved a lot of cold-calling to potential hosts. At first, I hated the cold calling. I would dial the number quickly before I could change my mind about making the call and my heart rate would increase with each ring. Eventually, after much coaching, I realized that I was just talking to another human being on the phone. By the end of the planning, I had built relationships with some of the tour hosts through our contact on the phone and e-mail. The passion that these supporters have to end mountaintop removal coal mining would remind me of why Appalachian Voices’ work is so important. I enjoy every opportunity I get to talk to these supporters. All of my planning was put into the hands of the amazing Austin Hall who engaged supporters on the road in Pennsylvania. My favorite part of my internship at Appalachian Voices was being able to get to know a few of the supporters well and I would have not had this opportunity if I was not forced to make a few cold calls.

Mountaintop Tuesdays DC Volunteer Nights
Each week, volunteers gather in the DC office to contact supporters by phone to encourage them to call, write, and meet with their Senators and Representatives about the Appalachia Restoration Act (S.B. 696) and Clean Water Protection Act (H.R. 1310). At first, just like setting up the Appalachian Treasures Tour, I was not thrilled to be making calls to strangers. I was surprised at how willing people were to say “yes!”. In addition to making contact with supporters during our volunteer nights, we also had some fun. Jed Grubbs led us in some sweet t-shirt making. These t-shirits are meant to be worn to be a conversation starter about MTR. Volunteer nights would not have been possible without the hard work, dedication, and travel of Jed!

Speaking at Limestone Presbyterian Church
Much of what I learned throughout the summer was applied at my speaking engagement at Limestone Presbyterian Church. My friend Sarah Marshall is an Elder at the church and connected me with the pastors Bruce and Carolyn Gillette, who are passionate about environmental justice and creation care. After the church service, Magpie played their song “Barons of King Coal” to introduce the topic of mountaintop removal coal mining. Their music is powerful and moving and if you have not had an opportunity to hear them, definitely check them out. After the music I described mountaintop removal coal mining and showed a brief DVD about the practice. Then came the “call to action”. Members of the congregation and guests in attendance wrote letters to Senator Tom Carper, Senator Ted Kaufman, and Representative Mike Castle urging them to end the devastating practice of mountaintop removal coal mining. It was awesome that people were receptive and willing to take the time to write letters.

I had many fabulous experiences this summer. I am grateful for the support of all of the staff members at Appalachian Voices, but especially the support from Kate Rooth, JW Randolph, and Lenny Kohm who taught me invaluable lessons about the campaign, the hill, and DC in general. Thank you for an awesome internship experience!

For serious.

Just check out last week’s NYTimes piece entitled Nuclear Energy Loses Cost Advantage, which notes:

Solar photovoltaic systems have long been painted as a clean way to generate electricity, but expensive compared with other alternatives to oil, like nuclear power. No longer. In a “historic crossover,” the costs of solar photovoltaic systems have declined to the point where they are lower than the rising projected costs of new nuclear plants, according to a paper published this month.

See the full piece here.

Yay! Kinda like this but with less pink hair…

Yesterday, the agency rejected 10 petitions, including those of coal companies such as Massey Energy and Peabody Energy, that challenged the Environmental Protection Agency’s 2009 determination that climate change is real, caused by humans and a threat to human health and the environment.

According to EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson:

The endangerment finding is based on years of science from the U.S. and around the world. These petitions — based as they are on selectively edited, out-of-context data and a manufactured controversy — provide no evidence to undermine our determination. Excess greenhouse gases are a threat to our health and welfare. Defenders of the status quo will try to slow our efforts to get America running on clean energy. A better solution would be to join the vast majority of the American people who want to see more green jobs, more clean energy innovation and an end to the oil addiction that pollutes our planet and jeopardizes our national security.

—Well I’ll be!—

Check out EPA’s informative full statement here

EPA’s ‘Facts vs. Myths” page here

And more information on EPA’s findings and the petitions here

News from the Upper Watuaga Riverkeeper Blog:

On July 21, 2010 an oil spill occurred at Mountain Oil Company in Boone, NC. The spill happened at the Mountain Oil facility on King Street.

The day before the spill, one of the workers Mountain Oil left a maintenance door open on one of the storage tanks. Early the next a different person began filling that tank with kerosene. The kerosene spilled straight onto the ground, it soaked into the soil and eventually reached the water table, and then it began seeping out into Hardin Creek.

Head over to the Upper Watauga Riverkeeper Blog for the full story.

In June, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) signaled its approval of Arch Coal subsidiary Coal-Mac’s Pine Creek surface mine in Logan County, WV. Yesterday, the agency announced that the US Army Corps of Engineers (ACE) had issued its final Clean Water Act permit for the mountaintop removal mine.

In other words…

They are still blowing up our mountains, and we still need a law.

This permit was issued despite…

– EPA’s new guidance for mountaintop removal operations and EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson’s proclamation that “No or very few valley fills…are going to meet standards like this.”
– The fact that the mine could create three new valley fills (each over 40 acres).
– The fact that the site will impact over two MILES of already suffering headwater streams.
– The fact that local communities are already contending with increased flooding due to strip mining in the area (a problem additional sites will exacerbate).
– The fact that deforestation on site will continue to dismantle an important global carbon sink, while the mine itself will produce over 14 million tons of coal – which when burned in power plants – will contribute over 40 million tonnes of carbon dioxide greenhouse gas pollution to our planet’s atmosphere.

We can end mountaintop removal in 2010. Ask your Congressman to support two bipartisan bills aimed at sharply curtailing mountaintop removal: the Clean Water Protection Act (HR 1310) in the House and the Appalachia Restoration Act (S 696) in the Senate. The health and heritage of Appalachia is at stake and a “few valley fills” is a few too many.

Back on July 17, asphalt sealant killed off 1.5 miles of Hodge’s Creek in Boone, NC. Turns out the sealant is made from coal tar, making this yet another consequence of using deadly coal by-products.

Coal tar, which would be listed as a ‘hazardous waste,’ were it not for a special federal exemption, contains benzo[a]pyrene. Benzo[a]pyrene is dangerous chemical that made EPA’s list of 12 priority “persistent bioaccumulative toxins.” Still, coal tar is being applied to asphalt across the country, and concerns are growing that toxins from the product are being tracked into homes, schools, hospitals and other buildings.

Check out the following presentation from Austin that more fully explains how coal tar sealants harm our environment.

The city of Austin, TX banned the product almost 5 years ago, when it was recognized to be damaging the local ecosystem. More recently a few other cities, including Washington, D.C., have followed suit. Overwhelmingly, though, the product remains unregulated, exacting unmeasured costs on cities and ecosystems (like Boone and Hodge’s creek) across the country.

Click here to check out a story in the Watauga Democrat’s about Hodge’s Creek accident.

Click here to see photos of the Riverkeeper Team doing an aquatic life assessment on Hodge’s Creek with the Division of Water Quality.

Appalachian Voices’ Legislative Associate JW Randolph was quoted on Friday in an article by the news organization Truthout. The piece, entitled Protesters Crash Massey Energy Lunch, but Don’t Sway Conversation, was about Massey Energy CEO Don Blankenship’s recent July 22 luncheon at the National Press Club in Washington, DC. There, Blankenship argued that expanding surface mining is essential not only for the US economy but also global health.

Randolph’s presence at the event offered a refreshingly sane perspective on surface mining in Appalachia and a not so refreshing jar of murky tap water from a home in the heavily strip mined Mingo County in West Virginia.

“We want every American to see … that Massey Energy creates dangerous communities for anybody living in Appalachia,” the article quotes Randolph.

Click here to read the entire piece.

For more on Massey’s less than earnest PR campaign head over to Coal Tattoo. Ken Ward Jr.’s insightful blog has covered the company’s shenanigans in depth.

By Colette Henderson

Five days ago, we kicked off the Dear Companion tour in Lexington, KY in full force. We packed the house and many stopped by the Appalachian Voices table to pick up materials and ask questions. The amazing part of doing this work in areas like Kentucky, Tennessee, West Virginia, and Virginia is the stories you can come across. One of the ushers at the Lexington show stopped by and commented on how she had protested strip mining in Eastern Kentucky back in the 60’s. Others talked of family and friends in the region who have come and gone due to the the distressing effect mining has on the area. A young woman nabbed an I Love Mountains bumper sticker before rushing into the show calling over her shoulder, “I’m from Eastern Kentucky, I”m so glad they are doing this work..”

After a great show in Knoxville, TN which brought in a new App Voice member (whee!), Dear Companion took a small break in Louisville before working our way to Charleston, WV. On stage in Charleston, the Dear Companion crew showed no shyness in letting the audience know why they were doing this tour. The crowd was receptive and the boys received a standing ovation for their performance. Later that night, many of us jumped on bicycles and rode around town, enjoying the cooler climate and new scenery.

It’s day five of the Dear Companion tour and we have landed in the small mountain town of Marlinton, WV. The town’s population is probably around 2,000. Nestled in Pocahontas County with the Greenbrier River running through, Marlinton is quiet and charming. I currently bring this update to you from a small local coffee shop called the Dirt Bean where the conversation has been abuzz with tonight’s performance. A family walked in earlier that drove from Huntington, WV to see the show. They were excited about the project and were looking forward to the evening. A young girl skipped in and said she had been to a gas station in Lewisberg, WV where a sign was posted condemning anyone who attended the show this evening. The barista commented the town was mostly pro coal and that she was skeptical about how many would attend.

Marlinton, WV is an interesting stop. It’s the smallest town we will be visiting on this tour and could be the most challenging. This is what this tour is about though, further opening a difficult conversation through the beautiful voices of Kentucky artists. Perhaps we’ll reach some new audiences today.

If you haven’t seen them yet, there’s still time! Catch em at the following venues:

Jul 27 – Charlottesville, VA – Jefferson Theater
Jul 29 – Woodstock, NY – Bearsville Theater
Jul 31 – Newport, RI – Newport Folk Festival
Aug 1 – Newport, RI – Newport Folk Festival

Learn more about the Appalachian Voices tour by clicking here.

Don’t miss yesterday’s enlightening Salon interview with US Senate candidate Ken Hechler of West Virginia.

Click here: Meet the World’s Oldest Senate Candidate

Last Friday, West Virginia Governor Joe Manchin appointed his former chief counsel, Carte Goodwin, to fill the vacated Senate seat of the late Robert C. Byrd. Goodwin, at the age of 36, has become the youngest member of the US Senate, replacing the chamber’s oldest and longest serving member. Goodwin will hold the seat until November, at which point Manchin hopes to fill it.

Speaking of Byrd, Governor Manchin said, “I think today we’ve honored him by choosing a worthy replacement.” Both President Obama and US Representative Nick Rahall [D-WV3] praised the appointment.

Before he had even taken the oath of office, Goodwin was already blasting the climate bill. Our nation’s newest Senator proclaimed:

From what I’ve seen of the Waxman-Markey bill that passed the House of Representatives and other proposals pending in the Senate, they simply are not right for West Virginia.

And went on to say:

I will not support any piece of legislation that threatens any West Virginia job, any West Virginia family, or jeopardizes the long-term economic security of this state.

Quite the mantra. But Goodwin must realized that coal mining employs fewer people than it did at the turn of the last century in West Virginia? Owing much to the advent of mountaintop removal, the increasingly mechanized industry has taken the miner out of the mine and turned what once amounted to 130,000 jobs in West Virginia alone, to around 20,000 jobs.

Is Goodwin not concerned about the declining availability of Central Appalachian coal, and what this will mean for the “long-term economic security” of his state? As staunch coal advocate Rep. Nick Rahall himself has admitted:

The state’s most productive coal seams likely will be exhausted in 20 years. And while coal will remain an important part of the economy, the state should emphasize green job development.

On a brighter note, the Associated Press points out that Goodwin was the principal author of coal-mine rescue reforms following the Sago and Aracoma mine disasters of 2006. Yet, Coal Tattoo notes that Goodwin was also involved in “Governor Manchin’s decision to back off any real investigation of the concerns about the safety of Marsh Fork Elementary School in Raleigh County.” Marsh Fork Elementary sits below Massey’s massive earthen Shumate impoundment, which holds back billions of gallons of coal sludge. Byrd, contrarily, showed true concern for the students and families of West Virginia, making the the following statement about Marsh Fork and Massey:

“For the sake of the kids, they should address these serious environmental concerns at Marsh Fork Elementary immediately.”

Not long before he passed away, Senator Byrd addressed the coal industry and the state of West Virginia stating:

The greatest threats to the future of coal do not come from possible constraints on mountaintop removal mining or other environmental regulations, but rather from rigid mindsets, depleting coal reserves, and the declining demand for coal as more power plants begin shifting to biomass and natural gas as a way to reduce emissions.

He furthered:

Change has been a constant throughout the history of our coal industry. West Virginians can choose to anticipate change and adapt to it, or resist and be overrun by it. One thing is clear. The time has arrived for the people of the Mountain State to think long and hard about which course they want to choose.

Only time will tell if Goodwin is willing to accept the realities of the 21st century and embrace the change that Byrd envisioned.