The small businesses, churches and schools you’re likely to find in a typical Appalachian town are pillars of their communities. But they’re not sources of significant employment. For most of rural Appalachia, poverty, high unemployment and the lack of economic diversity are persistent problems that have yet to be addressed in any comprehensive, effective manner.
Blog Archives
The Power of Energy Efficiency — Building a Stronger Economy for Appalachia (Part 2)
The Power of Energy Efficiency — Building a Stronger Economy for Appalachia (Part 1)
When you think of poverty, what words do you associate with it? Many of us might think of words like “low-income,” “unemployment” or “homelessness.” Unfortunately, it is not often that we associate poverty with electricity costs, because for many across the United States, especially those living in the South and Appalachia, electricity costs play a significant role in worsening the impacts of poverty.
TAGS: appalachia Economy Electric Utilities Energy Efficiency Energy Savings for Appalachia The Power of Energy Efficiency
Central Appalachian-focused James River Coal Company enters bankruptcy
This week, James River Coal Company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in federal court. Like Patriot Coal, which reemerged from bankruptcy in December, the Richmond, Va.-based company’s operations are concentrated in Central Appalachia and are located in some of the counties most economically vulnerable to coal’s downturn.
Toxic Warnings: Recent Spills Underscore Lack of Water Oversight
By Kimber Ray In the early morning hours of Jan. 9, Kim Thompson was getting ready to leave her South Charleston home in Kanawha Co. — the most populated region in the mountains of West Virginia — and head out…
Appalachia’s Place in the War on Poverty
By Molly Moore Patsy Dowling considers herself a success of the War on Poverty. As a premature baby born in western North Carolina in 1964 — the same year President Lyndon B. Johnson declared war on poverty — Dowling entered…
Connecting the Dots of the Southern Appalachian Loop Trail
By Matt Kirk What unites many of us in the Southern Appalachians is a love for hiking along the hundreds of miles of trails in our region. Ten years ago, I discovered that many of these paths form a loop…
Court Strikes Down Bush-era Water Rule for Coal Mines
By Molly Moore In February, a U.S. district court struck down the 2008 Stream Buffer Zone Rule, which loosened stream protections near mountaintop removal mining sites, declaring it violated the Endangered Species Act. Senior Judge Barbara Rothstein wrote that the…
Energy Efficiency Offers Promise of Lower Electric Bills
By Brian Sewell Even as residential energy efficiency improves, the impact of home energy costs on low-income families in the Southeast has become more severe since the turn of the century, according to a report by Appalachian Voices. The report,…
Appalachian States Debate Hemp Legalization
By Nolen Nychay The legal hemp farming debate has come to Appalachia. The much-debated Farm Bill President Obama signed into law in February included a “hemp amendment,” which permitted the regulated cultivation of industrial hemp in states that have legalized…
Cherokee Tribe Works to Replenish Deer Population
By Kelsey Boyajian On the Eastern Band of the Cherokee Nation’s Qualla Boundary in western North Carolina, white-tailed deer are a rare species. The population was depleted in the late eighteenth century during the peak of the fur trade, but…
