From Today’s Daily Press: The expected increase in demand for energy in Virginia during the next two decades could nearly be offset by energy efficiency technologies and practices, a new report claims. Read the rest here.

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From NPR’s Morning Edition. Two coal miners say they quit Massey Energy’s Upper Big Branch mine in the final months before an explosion because they thought it was going to blow up. A third miner — who had worked at the mine for 13 years — called Upper Big Branch “a time bomb.” Read and [...]

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Appalachian Voices Program Director Dr. Matt Wasson takes aim at some misleading information on renewable energy recently published in the Washington Post. This excerpt taken from the Huffington Post where you can read the whole article. Readers of the Washington Post were served up somejaw-dropping whoppers yesterday about why renewable energy – and wind in [...]

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Council Candidates Stick to Scripts During Wide-Ranging League Forum By Desiree Parker Wednesday, April 21, 2010 Candidates for Williamsburg City Council stuck to their main messages Tuesday during a forum hosted by the Williamsburg area’s League of Women Voters. The format consisted of about an hour of questions from moderator Patricia Albert, with each candidate [...]

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Cross posted from the Appalachian Voices “Front Porch Blog” Washington, DC – U.S. Senator Robert C. Byrd, D-W.Va. issued the following statements in response to media inquiries on a number of topics relating to the mining disaster in West Virginia: “While the situation on the ground this morning is not as encouraging as we had [...]

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Cross Posted from the Charleston Gazette’s “Coal Tattoo Blog”. You have to click on the link to not only read the rest of this ridiculous story, but also to see how sad ‘ole Blankenship looks. April 8, 2010 by Ken Ward Jr. If you watched or listened to the mine rescue briefing that just ended, you [...]

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Cross Posted from Appalachian Voices Front Porch Blog Daniel Stone published a piece on coal and energy over Newsweek’s “The Gaggle” called ”West Virginia Mine Disaster Unlikely to Affect National Energy Debate”.  David Roberts at Grist responded to Energy Committee Staffer Bill Wicker for a quote he had in the article, and its well worth the [...]

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Cross Posted from Appalachian Voices Front Porch Blog Who opposes coal miners? No one except the crazy, misguided people at Westboro Baptist Church – who are currently bringing their hate parade to your corner of West Virginia. Appalachian Voices condemns these lunatics and anyone else who would use this tragedy as some sort of opportunity to denigrate [...]

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The following email was sent to the 41,000 supporters of iLoveMountains.org. To sign up to receive free email alerts, click here. Because of your actions, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency made an unprecedented and historic move yesterday toward curbing the devastating practice of mountaintop removal coal mining. The new policy, effective immediately for pending surface mine [...]

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Cross posted from the Appalachian Voices Front Porch Blog. The EPA took a major new step towards ending the environmentally destructive practice of Mountaintop Removal Mining today. New guidance standards, effective today for new and pending surface mining permits in Appalachia, will mean that the practice of filling in valleys with mountaintops will probably not [...]

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Update 2:50 PM: You can see Ken Ward (Charleston Gazette -WV) has posted the audio form the press conference: http://blogs.wvgazette.com/coaltattoo/2010/04/01/breaking-news-not-an-april-fools-joke-epa-actually-does-take-unprecedented-steps-to-reduce-damage-from-mountaintop-removal-coal-mining/ FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE April 1, 2010 EPA Issues Comprehensive Guidance to Protect Appalachian Communities From Harmful Environmental Impacts of Mountain Top Mining Guidance provides additional clarity and ensures stronger protection at projects in Ohio, Pennsylvania, West [...]

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