Published: Tuesday, August 31, 2010 at 6:01 a.m. Last Modified: Tuesday, August 31, 2010 at 5:08 a.m. Blasting off mountaintops to reach coal in Appalachia or churning out millions of tons of carbon dioxide to extract oil from sand in Alberta are among environmentalists’ biggest industrial irritants. But they are also legal and lucrative. For [...]

[Read more →]

A rather poignant editorial from today’s Virginia Pilot. Full editorial here, excerpt below. Clean coal is the future. Americans hear that constantly from the electricity industry, which spends countless millions on commercials and to sway Washington. If that’s so, why is the industry building so many old-style power plants?

[Read more →]

Science: 1 Witch Hunter: 0 According to both the Richmond Times Dispatch and the Washington Post, Ken Cuccinelli’s attempt to investigate University of Virginia climate scientist, Michael Mann, is not legally founded. An Albemarle County Circuit Court judge has set aside a subpoena issued by Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli to the University of Virginia seeking [...]

[Read more →]

For Immediate Release: Thursday, August 26, 2010 News Media Contact: (202) 586-4940 Virginia to Receive Nearly $7.5 Million to Expand the State’s Successful Weatherization Program State has already weatherized more than 3,200 homes under the Recovery Act Washington, DC – U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu announced today that Virginia has been selected to receive nearly [...]

[Read more →]

By Sandra. Originally posted on Appalachian Voices’ Front Porch Blog The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), a New Deal initiative designed to uplift the Tennessee and surrounding Appalachian states by providing electricity to the region, is now better known for one of the largest environmental disasters on the east coast (not including the BP oil spill). [...]

[Read more →]

The catastrophic TVA coal ash spill in Kingston, Tennessee in 2008 that released over a billion gallons of coal sludge into the Emory River was a national wake-up call about the dangers of coal ash. There are decent odds that you or someone you know lives near toxic coal ash – there are at least [...]

[Read more →]

By Josh Brown The Virginian-Pilot © August 20, 2010 The developer who plans to buy Ford Motor Co.’s shuttered Norfolk pickup assembly plant said Thursday that the redevelopment of the site could help create as many as 10,000 jobs for the region. Jim Jacoby, who has a track record of large redevelopment projects in Atlanta, reached [...]

[Read more →]

Click here to read the latest published letter by M. Robin Church of James City in a a series of many letters to the editor and editorials concerning the coal plant proposed by Old Dominion Electric Cooperative. Excerpt: I was interested to read the article by Cortney Langley regarding the use of James River water for domestic [...]

[Read more →]

Grady Wins REC Region II Director Spot August 17, 2010 by Edward Leonard Excerpt: Although Marmet will not be joining the REC Board of Directors this term, he said that he plans to stay active on the Cypress Creek Power Station issue. “Despite the fact that I am disappointed that I won’t be joining the [...]

[Read more →]

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

[Read more →]

By TOM ZELLER Jr. Published: August 14, 2010 LORELEI SCARBRO’S husband, Kenneth, an undergroundcoal miner for more than 30 years, is buried in a small family cemetery near her property here at the base of Coal River Mountain. The headstone is engraved with two roosters facing off, their feathers ruffled. Kenneth, who loved cockfighting, died in [...]

[Read more →]

Sunday, August 8, 2010 6:00pm – 9:00pm Location: Mt. Vernon Unitarian Church 1901 Windmill Lane Alexandria, VAA Virginia rural electric utility has released plans to spend $6 billion on a new coal-fired power plant just 32 miles from the Chesapeake Bay. Because this utility is cooperative, a board elected by the ratepayers will make the [...]

[Read more →]