Appalachia
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'Peak Coal' comes to Appalachia
By 2015, coal production in Appalachia will be half what it was in 2008. Some coal industry advocates argue that such a drop is due to increased regulation by the Obama administration (go figure). But geologists and others who work in the industry say it's actually the result of a much more basic fact: Appalachia is running out of coal.
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Mountaintop-removal mining is unpopular even in coal country
A strong majority of Appalachians oppose mountaintop-removal coal mining -- 57 percent -- according to a new poll conducted in the region.
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With HR 2018 House – Once Again – Passes Attack on Water, Science, Humans
Yesterday evening, the House of Representatives passed The Clean Water Cooperative Federalism Act (HR 2018), a bill that turns back the clock 40 years on the environmental and public health protections in the Clean Water Act. This brazen attack on public protections is the closest big industrial polluters have ever come to completely gutting laws […]
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Kentucky coal companies remind us why we really, really need the EPA
The latest episode in the saga known as Big Coal's Watergate began Tuesday when environmental and citizen groups filed a second notice of intent to sue the two largest mountaintop-removal mining companies in Kentucky.
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Outrage: As mountaintop removal linked to birth defects, politicians gut Clean Water Act
I just can’t stop thinking about a new scientific study published this week that found there are “significantly higher” rates of birth defects near mountaintop removal coal mining operations As a mother of a 1-year-old, I can vividly remember the long wait of pregnancy. I was so excited to meet my new daughter, and so […]
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Will natural-gas fracking turn New York into a 21st century Appalachia?
How much is it worth to you to put up with contaminated drinking water?Photo: Helen SlottjeLet’s define “Appalachia” at the beginning: a place blessed with mountains above below-ground natural resources, but cursed with chronically high unemployment; a place where natural resources are not owned by the landowners; a place where extracting those natural resources poisons […]
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Appalachia Keeps Rising
Without question, one of the most rewarding organizing experiences I have ever been a part of was the “Appalachia Rising” mobilization in late September of last year. Appalachia Rising consisted of three very successful days of action in Washington, D.C.: a two-day weekend conference, followed by a Monday morning march of 2,000 people to the […]
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EPA blows up industry's plan to blow up a mountaintop
The EPA has vetoed the permit of the Spruce No. 1 mountaintop removal mine in West Virginia. Environmentalists are happy, the coal industry is mad.
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Industry wraps coal ash regulation fight in the mantle of civil rights
Some opponents of stronger coal ash regulation are trying to make their case in the language of civil rights. But their argument doesn't fly.