West Virginia
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Blair Mountain: A new milestone in the climate justice movement?
Those making the March on Blair Mountain are part of a long history of activism.Photo: Cheshire Tongkat/March on Blair MountainTim DeChristopher is a climate activist and cofounder of Peaceful Uprising. He has been beatified as a saint in the Church of Earthalujah by the Reverend Billy and convicted as a felon by the United States […]
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A year after the deadly Upper Big Branch mine disaster, not much has changed
Today marks the one-year memorial of the Upper Big Branch mine disaster, which killed 29 workers. Massey Energy Co., which ran the Upper Big Branch mine, will idle production at its 60 underground mines today — but as safety reports and lawsuits pile up, it becomes increasingly clear that a one-day shutdown is not enough. […]
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Three Major Clean Energy Victories This Month
With so much in the news lately, you might have missed these three recent, major victories in the effort to move America beyond coal, so I wanted to share them with you: Illinois: Last week Governor Pat Quinn vetoed two bills that would have put natural gas customers on the hook for two new coal […]
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Sen. Jay Rockefeller: Climate science is ‘unequivocally true’
Cross-posted from the Wonk Room. Opposing Republican efforts to forbid climate regulations, Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) said Tuesday that the science of human-made climate change is “unequivocally true.” Rockefeller, a strong defender of his state’s coal industry, spoke out on the Senate floor against an amendment submitted to a small business bill by Senate Minority […]
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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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Moving from coal to clean energy
Who needs coal when there are such great examples of clean energy initiatives around the U.S.? I’ve got several examples for you this week. First, let’s head to coal central: West Virginia. There are some new solar panels appearing in Morgantown: A group devoted to creating alternative energy jobs in Central Appalachia is building a […]
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Coal Victories and Challenges
Every week it seems as if there’s coal-related news to celebrate and to challenge us. We celebrated last week’s decision from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Lisa Jackson to veto the water permit for the massive Spruce No. 1 mountaintop removal coal mining site in West Virginia. Administrator Jackson’s brave step stopped a mountaintop […]
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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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Dangerous delaying tactics
Is there really much daylight between the radical rhetoric of the new House leadership and the more moderate-sounding stance of Sen. Rockefeller?