Wednesday, December 18th, 2013 | Posted by Kimber Ray | No Comments
Although the Clean Air Act was first enacted Dec. 17, 1963, it wasn't until the 1970 Clean Air Act amendments that the law was substantial enough to make a memorable mark on history. Perhaps embarrassed by memories of the more clumsy and inept act of 1963, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency itself gave the 50th anniversary the cold shoulder — instead celebrating the of the amendments Dec. 31, 2010.
[ Read More ]Tuesday, December 17th, 2013 | Posted by Brian Sewell | 2 Comments
Today’s Bloomberg View editorial bears a headline at once forehead-slapping simple and frustratingly complex: Energy Efficiency Is Long Overdue. “On a global scale, we humans are becoming more energy efficient with each passing year,” the Bloomberg piece begins. “Even so, we’re exploiting only a fraction of the technological opportunities to use energy more cost-effectively.”
[ Read More ]Friday, December 13th, 2013 | Posted by Eric Chance | No Comments
This two headed trout was deformed by selenium pollution. Today, we have taken action to keep EPA and Kentucky from allowing pollution like this to get worse.
Earlier today Appalachian Voices and a number of partner organizations sued the EPA over their approval of Kentucky’s new, weaker standard for selenium pollution.
Selenium is extremely toxic to fish, and causes deformities and reproductive failure at extremely low levels. The pollutant is commonly discharged from coal mines and coal ash ponds, but currently Kentucky does not regulate its discharge from these facilities.
These new standards were proposed at the behest of coal industry groups, likely motivated by citizen groups’ success at requiring companies in other states to clean up their selenium pollution. We have also seen the state governments of Virginia and West Virginia take steps towards making similar rollbacks to their own standards, making the EPA’s approval of Kentucky’s weakened standards even more alarming.
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Friday, December 13th, 2013 | Posted by Kimber Ray | No Comments
The coal and biomass powered Virginia City Hybrid Energy Center began operations in 2012, joining the growing number of biomass facilities in the Southeast. Photo credit: United States Geological Survey
As the push continues to seek alternative and renewable energy resources, utility companies are increasingly turning to an energy source from days gone by: wood.
The growth of the biomass-for-energy industry has been particularly vigorous in the Southeast, with exports of wood pellets rising by 70 percent in just the past year. While this industry growth can be a regional economic boon, a new study commissioned by the Southern Environmental Law Center and the National Wildlife Federation cautions that unchecked expansion of biomass facilities will threaten wildlife and water quality across the Southeast.
For Appalachia — already impacted by mountaintop removal coal mining — the consequences caused by the reckless pursuit of energy resources are a familiar reality. But while the negative impacts of coal mining are clear — from levelled mountains to contaminated water — the impacts of biomass harvesting are far less clear-cut. Overharvesting biomass can destroy wildlife habitats, contribute to water pollution and expose nearby communities to increased flood risk. But contrary to what many might suspect, the report indicates that managing forests as a source of biomass can have a host of merits when done sustainably, including protecting forests and wildlife as well as creating stable jobs and revenue.
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Thursday, December 12th, 2013 | Posted by Rory McIlmoil | No Comments
The Energy Savings Action Center is an easy-to-use tool designed to help save money and energy by promoting energy efficiency loan programs through your electric utility.
On Dec. 4, the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Loan Program (EECLP), a new loan program that will provide at least $250 million to rural electric cooperatives each year to develop or expand energy efficiency loan programs for residential and business customers.
To encourage rural electric cooperatives across Appalachia take advantage of the new program, and help the region’s residents save money on their energy bills, Appalachian Voices created the Energy Savings Action Center.
Stephen Johnson of the online publication Electric Co-op Today stressed the importance of the EECLP, stating that “Although energy efficiency measures can reduce home energy use considerably, many consumers and businesses do not invest in them because they lack the capital or financing to do so.”
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Tuesday, December 10th, 2013 | Posted by Kara Dodson | No Comments
Jane Branham – rally speaker and Vice President of Southern Appalachian Mountain Stewards. Photo Credit: The Sierra Club.
The Coalfields Expressway, more aptly nicknamed the “Road to Ruin” by its opponents, threatens Southwest Virginia with new mountaintop removal coal mines and weakened local economies. That’s why more than 89,000 Americans oppose the project and more than 75 defenders of Appalachia’s water, air, land and communities rallied outside the Federal Highways Administration in D.C. last Thursday. Our purpose was to urge the agency to make sure that Virginia to take a long, hard look at environmental impacts of this mountaintop removal mine masquerading as a highway.
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Friday, December 6th, 2013 | Posted by Thom Kay | 2 Comments
“I don’t want to mislead anyone, I don’t think it will pass in the Senate and maybe not the House,” Virginia Rep. Morgan Griffith said of his bill, the latest futile attack on the EPA, which would to force the agency to layoff 15 percent of its employees.
Congressman Morgan Griffith (R-VA) introduced a new bill this week titled the “EPA Maximum Achievable Contraction of Technocrats Act,” or “EPA MACT Act.”
The bill would require the EPA to layoff 15 percent of its employees. The title of the bill is a play on words, referring to EPA’s Utility MACT rule, which would drastically reduce air pollution in the United States. Because if there’s one thing that makes a good piece of federal legislation, it’s a title that pokes fun at pollution controls.
The bill would reduce employment at EPA over a three-year period, though no rate of contraction would be mandated over that time period. It also includes a long “Findings” section full of disjointed talking points that are seemingly meant to explain the need for staff cuts. Griffith uses the fact that 95 percent of the EPA’s employees were deemed ‘non-essential’” during the government shutdown to justify the reductions and makes the trivial point that “the EPA occupies space in fourteen different buildings in the District of Columbia.”
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Thursday, December 5th, 2013 | Posted by Sarah Kellogg | 4 Comments
Bluegill from Lake Sutton with a deformed spine (top) compared to a normal bluegill (bottom). Photo courtesy SELC
Coal ash, the toxic waste produced by coal-fired power plants continues to plague communities across the country. A new study, conducted by Dr. Dennis Lemly, research associate professor of Biology at Wake Forest University and a leading expert on selenium poisoning, found that selenium from coal ash discharges into Sutton Lake near Wilmington, N.C., is killing more than 900,000 fish each year and causing deformities in thousands more. (more…)
Read More ...Tuesday, December 3rd, 2013 | Posted by Guest Contributor | No Comments
{ Editor’s Note } Guy Caroselli is the Local Energy Alliance Program’s senior technical advisor, but is also known as “The House Doctor.” He says he love mysteries and being challenged and shares has thirty-five years of experience in Home Performance and residential energy efficiency.
“The House Doctor,” Guy Caroselli, conducts an energy assessment at a Charlottesville, Va., home. Photo by Andrew Shurtleff
As the Local Energy Alliance Program’s senior technical advisor and trainer (a.k.a. “The House Doctor”), people ask me all of the time how they can make their homes work better – and shrink their energy bills.
As we approach winter, those questions are more frequent and urgent. Everyone has memories of being shocked by a January heating bill or fighting with a loved one over the thermostat setting. Based in Charlottesville, LEAP works with residents of central and northern Virginia to help them prevent those scenes from repeating for yet another winter season. How can you make sure your home is energy-efficient? Let’s start with a short quiz. (more…)
Read More ...Wednesday, November 27th, 2013 | Posted by Tom Cormons | 4 Comments
Appalachian Voices works with citizens throughout the region to expose water pollution from mountaintop removal mining, and we’ve been advocating for strong state standards to control this dangerous pollutant. We are pushing back on the EPA’s decision on Kentucky, and we’re ready to hit the ground to fight for responsible, enforceable standards in other states.
[ Read More ]Tuesday, November 26th, 2013 | Posted by Cat McCue | 1 Comment
We’re excited to welcome three new staff members to the Appalachian Voices team. Over the past several weeks, Amy Adams, Kara Dodson and Ann League have joined our staff, each one bringing her own unique experience, professionalism, talent and passion to our mission. The influx of their combined energy and enthusiasm has already brought a tremendous boost to the organization, with much more to come!
Read More ...Wednesday, November 20th, 2013 | Posted by Erin Savage | No Comments
Researchers at the University of Maryland have just released the first high-resolution map of global forest change in the 21st century. University of Maryland Professor of Geographical Sciences Matthew Hansen and his team published “High-Resolution Global Maps of 21st-Century Forest Cover Change” in the scientific journal Science last week. The project uses Landsat data, satellite imagery collected by the United States Geological Survey. A Google Earth Engine team created the map through high performance processing of geospatial data, to complete a time-series analysis of over 650,000 images to characterize forest extent and change between 2000 and 2012.
The online map provides imagery in a series of colors to document forest loss and gain. The accompanying article covers some expected and well known trends – deforestation of portions of the tropics from timber harvest and clearing for agriculture, as well as forest change in boreal forests from forest fire. Overall, the world lost 2.3 million square kilometers of forest between 2000 and 2012, but gained 800,000 square kilometers elsewhere, for a net loss of 1.5 million square kilometers.
The researchers noted one prominent trend in the United States: the disturbance rate of forests in the Southeast was 4 times that of the South American rainforest. In this case “disturbance rate” includes both the loss and regrowth of forest. Several factors may contribute to this high rate of change. In several Southeastern states, pine plantations are grown and harvested on relatively short cycles – more like other crops than natural forest. Another reason for the high rate of change may be mountaintop removal coal mining.
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