For the next couple of days, you’ll have a hard time looking at anything online or on TV that doesn’t try to break down the midterm elections. Most pundits will analyze what happened, and some will try to tell you what it all means. Whatever that is, the job before us has not changed, and our responsibilities to Appalachia are the same today as they were yesterday and will be tomorrow.
Blog Archives
Be cool and keep fighting
TAGS: appalachia Clean Water Act Coal Coal Ash Congress EPA Kentucky Mountaintop Removal North Carolina Politics Tennessee Virginia West Virginia
A Washington Post editorial on mountaintop removal’s dirty consequences
The Washington Post published a strongly worded editorial condemning mountaintop removal coal mining in Appalachia that cites recent studies revealing the practice’s dirty consequences. With the mounting scientific evidence that mining pollution is decimating aquatic life, wiping out trees and mountains, and promoting a host of human health problems, there is no excuse to continue allowing mountaintop removal.
Mountaintop removal promotes lung cancer
The body of research linking mountaintop removal mining to lung cancer just got a whole lot stronger. Using dust samples collected in communities near mountaintop removal mines, a new study conducted by West Virginia University researchers found a direct link between air pollution and tumor growth.
The reclamation myth, it’s still happening too
Companies are still using mountaintop removal, blowing up mountains in Appalachia to mine coal. But despite what some say, they are not putting them back together again. Until the Obama administration and Congress take serious action, no amount of reclamation is going to fix the problems the mining is leaving behind.
The Truth About Coal Ash
Coal ash — the byproduct of burning coal for electricity — is currently less regulated than regular household garbage. Filled with heavy metals, coal ash is proven to contaminate groundwater and pollute communities with dust.
Employees of DEP-certified lab conspired to violate Clean Water Act
An employee of a state-certified company pleaded guilty to conspiracy to violate the federal Clean Water Act after he faked compliant water quality samples for coal companies between 2008 and 2013. While we’re appalled by this discovery, it is hard to be surprised.
TAGS: appalachia Clean Water Act Coal EPA Kentucky Mountaintop Removal Water Pollution West Virginia
Successful Rally at the White House Council on Environmental Quality
Last week, Appalachian citizens and allies from across the country rallied at the White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ). Dana Kuhnline, media coordinator for The Alliance for Appalachia, writes that residents are tired of waiting for the administration to act on promises it made in 2009 and are ready for a just transition to an economy beyond mountaintop removal and other destructive coal practices.
Carl Shoupe: Seeing through the “War on Coal” smokescreen
“Instead of raging about a made-up war on coal and how to protect coal corporations, Congress should take a closer look at how to really support coal communities,” Kentuckians For The Commonwealth member and retired miner Carl Shoupe writes.
It’s still happening …
Since the mid-1990s, the coal industry has blasted the tops off of more 500 of the oldest, most biologically rich mountains in America, and destroyed more than 2,000 miles of headwater streams. Despite a growing movement of Appalachians and thousands of other citizens rallying to end the destruction, it’s still happening.
Today, Congress has to learn about mountaintop removal
Congressional representatives have shown little interest over the past few years in talking about mountaintop removal coal mining. They’d rather lambast the EPA and the Obama Administration for any actions to protect Appalachia’s people and environment. But today, our program director, Matt Wasson, is testifying before Congress. That means members will hear about higher-than-average cancer rates and other impacts of this abominable coal mining practice.
