Coal Company Conducts Business as Usual Near Kanawha State Forest By Tarence Ray Seven miles south of Charleston, W.Va., sits a 9,300-acre expanse of trails, streams and wildlife known as the Kanawha State Forest. The forest’s diverse wildflower and bird…
Blog Archives
Proposed Stream Protection Rule Released
By Erin Savage The agency responsible for regulating surface coal mining across the country released a proposed Stream Protection Rule on July 16, which is intended to limit mining impacts on streams. The long-awaited rule is not the federal Office…
Data Showing Decline in Surface Coal Production Raises Questions
Data shows a steep decline in coal production from Appalachian surface mines, yet the data doesn’t fully account for the extent of mountaintop removal coal mining.
On the Front Lines
When mountaintop removal threatened to surround the tiny town of Inman, Va., residents pushed back.
TAGS: communities at risk mountaintop removal coal mining Southern Appalachian Mountain Stewards Virginia
Breaking Clean Tour 2015
Breaking Clean Tour The Mullins family is hitting the road once more to share their story about life in the Appalachian coalfields. The Breaking Clean Tour, which visited more than 20 cities in the Southeast and Midwest in 2014, will…
Video Shows Rare View of Mountaintop Removal Mining
CONTACT: Cat McCue, Communications Director, (434) 293-6373; cat@appvoices.org A short video released today by Appalachian Voices with stunningly detailed drone footage provides a rare view of mountaintop removal coal mining and the increasing proximity of this destructive form of mining…
TAGS: appalachia Coal mining communities at risk economic diversity Kentucky king coal Mountaintop Removal mountaintop removal coal mining surface mining Tennessee transition Virginia Water Pollution West Virginia
WV to Review Research on Mining Health Impacts
West Virginia’s Bureau of Public Health announced in March that the agency will begin working with the state’s Department of Environmental Protection to evaluate existing research that links surface coal mining and poor health.
Fossil Fuel Industry Losing Investors
Brevard College in North Carolina became the first academic institution in the Southeast to take steps towards divestment from fossil fuels, and PNC Financial announced that it will no longer finance individual mountaintop removal projects or coal mining companies that utilize mountaintop removal to extract 25 percent or more of their coal.
Appalachian Voices Book Club
Appalachia’s triumphs and tragedies, its beauty and mystery, and its people’s tenacity, love and good humor have long been enshrined in fiction. This year, the stories of the region’s struggles with coal are reaching a national audience thanks to two powerful new novels.
TAGS: Appalachian Culture Appalachian politics books Climate change mountaintop removal coal mining nuclear weapons
Gray Mountain by John Grisham
It’s 2008, ten days after the fall of Lehman Brothers, when 29-year-old Samantha Kofer is laid off from her profitable but uninspiring career at a New York law firm. Within days she finds herself traveling the hairpin roads of southwest…
