Reposted from The Chesapeake Climate Action Network’s Blog.
Today was another day for Virginia to make headlines. Like most headlines of late, this wasn’t a good one either. Our new Attorney General has made the environment one of his top priorities. Shouldn’t this be a GOOD thing you ask? In some instances, yes, but not when [...]

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Dominion stokes the coal industry, but says it’s a friend to the environment
BY ERIKA HOWSARE of the Cville Weekly

It’s a dim, drizzly afternoon, and I’m riding around Wise County with Kathy and Gary Selvage. I can see what they’re pointing out—evidence of surface mining—but I can’t see it the way they do.
The Selvages have [...]

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PRESS RELEASE from the Wise Energy for Virginia Coalition
www.WiseEnergyForVirginia.org
February 1, 2010
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NEW ECONOMIC REPORT SHOWS FEW JOBS FROM PROPOSED COAL PLANT IN SURRY COUNTY WOULD GO TO LOCAL RESIDENTS
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CONTACT:
Scott Moore, Moore Data LLC, 843-564-5257
Tom Cormons, Appalachian Voices, 301-910-8973
Cale Jaffe, Southern Environmental Law Center, 434-760-0816

Download the full report

Dendron, VA—At a public hearing tonight, the [...]

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Today the EPA announced plans to seek stronger limits of pollution forming ozone. EPA administrator said in a statement, “Smog in the air we breathe poses a very serious health threat, especially to children and individuals suffering from asthma and lung disease.”
The current limit, set by the Bush administration EPA, is 75 parts per billion [...]

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As Congress was returning from the August recess, there wasn’t much news about the climate bill.  The only energy-related news breaking through the coverage of the rancorous health care debates and town-hall tea parties was a study on “energy sprawl” published by five staff members of the Nature Conservancy.
“Renewable Energy Needs Land, Lots Of Land” [...]

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This Time in South Carolina
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Cross posted from the Appalachian Voices Front Porch Blog
Today rate-payers and oxygen users can breathe a little easier, as the Santee Cooper company nixed its plans to build another coal plant in the state.
A committee of the state-owned utility voted this morning to suspend an effort to secure permits [...]

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cross-posted from the CCAN blog.
This morning, CCAN staff, volunteers and concerned Americans nationwide staged series of beach-themed rallies in around fifty cities across the country. Held in partnership with 1Sky, the festive gathering sought to urge our Senators to enact climate legislation that ensures a real cap on CO2, dictated by the EPA, as [...]

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Cross posted from Appalachian Voices Front Porch Blog
Congressman Tom Perriello (VA-05) was just on Rachel Maddow talking about Bonner/ACCCE’s fraudulent attempts to get him to vote against climate legislation. The fossil fuel industry has completely destroyed their fragile credibility, and things are heating up for ACCCE and their corporate lobbying partners with increasing calls for [...]

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cross-posted from the CCAN Blog
Virginians are no stranger to coal. A state that currently generates 42% of its electricity from the old-school fossil fuel, we are used to living in a political culture that accepts – and endorses – the adherence to a fuel as old as the dinosaurs, and equally archaic. Major players in [...]

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Cross posted from Appalachian Voices’ Front Porch Blog
Polluting Industries Caught Forging Support
When you are a small non-profit working to reform billion dollar industries, you can take some solace when the other side is damaging their own case far more seriously than regular citizens ever could. The last few days have been a highlight reel of [...]

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Thanks in part to your efforts, Big Coal suffered a setback in Virginia this week!
Members of the Dendron Town Council, backed by local supporters cooling themselves with hand-held fans reading “No Coal Plant,” voted to decide for themselves if a coal plant will be built in their town. The vote means this important decision will [...]

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Cross-posted from the CCAN Blog.
Dendron, Virginia, has more than its share of challenges. The community of around 300, located in the southern corner of Surry County, struggles with an outdated municipal water system, crumbling sidewalks and no major businesses within the town.
Prior to the Great Depression, Dendron had been a company town of more than [...]

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cross-posted from the CCAN blog
Yesterday, the EPA performed a turn-around on its protection of the locations of 44 “high risk” coal ash impoundment sites, signaling a desire to make the regulatory body more transparent. Formerly protected under the auspices of national security, the ash impoundments, located in Ohio, Arizona, and throughout the southeast, have [...]

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The American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009 cleared its first of many hurdles to passage yesterday, passing the Energy and Commerce Committee by a vote of 33-25. The vote was mostly party line, with three conservative Democrats defecting (Mike Ross (AR-04), Jim Mathson (UT-02), and Charlie Melancon (LA-03)) and one Republican voting with [...]

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Several opinion pieces have been submitted and printes by newspapers in the Hampton Roads area concerning ODEC’s proposed 1,500 megawatt power plant for the region.
Eileen over at Articlexi.com, Virginia’s environmentally focused blog, has collected a few of them and posted them as a blog, and others have since been posted in the comments. Check out [...]

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