The fine assessed to coal company for blasting a boulder into your home : $10,000 Bail assessed to tree-sitters who prevent blasting at a mountaintop removal site: $50,000 Ending mountaintop removal coal mining: PRICELESS One of the dangers that face coalfield residents every day is what the industry calls flyrock, a term that does not [...]

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pstrongThis LTE was published in the a href=”http://www2.timesdispatch.com/rtd/news/opinion/letters/article/ED-GLICK17_20090916-190802/293287/”Richmond Times Dispatch/a/strong/ppstrongThis is crossposted from the a href=”http://www.chesapeakeclimate.org/blog”CCAN/a blogbr //strong/ppstrongWise County Plant Isn’t Necessary/strong/ppbr /Editor, Times-Dispatch: Although the news article, “New Permit for Coal-Fired Power Plant Pleases Both Sides,” quotes Dominion Virginia Power as claiming that the Wise County coal plant is vital to meeting Virginia’s future [...]

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Cross posted from the Appalachian Voices Front Porch Blog The struggles of folks in West Virginia is not only getting national air time, it is finally front and center – the lead story of last Sunday’s New York Times, to be exact. The article details the Massey family from Prenter, W.Va., and their life with [...]

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Cross posted from the Chesapeake Climate Action Network Blog Today the Virginia Air Board had its quarterly meeting and looking at the agenda one thing is crystal clear: Coal is impacting air quality all over the Commonwealth. As I write this from the meeting room, and the Air Board is hearing reports on problems associated [...]

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Cross posted by JW from the Appalachian Voices Front Porch Blog Having had their astroturfing forgery exposed, this week coal industry front group ACCCE is taking an uber-REAL super-grassrootsy approach to showing us their grassrootability, via Twitter. And this time, rather than making stuff up about random minority groups, womens’ organizations, or seniors, they’re saying [...]

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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 [...]

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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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Governor Tim Kaine of Virginia, a close ally to President Obama and current head of the Democratic National Committee (DNC), came out with this statement in favor of the Administration’s proposal regarding mountaintop removal removal yesterday. “I applaud the new guidelines announced by the administration which will impose tighter restrictions on mountaintop mining. “In Virginia, [...]

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Mountaintop removal is hard to ignore when it’s in your backyard. Bo Webb, whose home on Cherry Pond Mountain lies near an active mountaintop removal mine. In his recent letter to President Obama, asking him to take executive action against the destructive mining practice, Webb painted a picture of how living near a mine site [...]

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February 23, 2009 As always, there’s plenty going on in the mountains this week. We’re very excited about the introduction of the Appalachian Mountains Preservation Act in Georgia (the number one consumer of MTR coal in the nation!) and Maryland in the last two weeks, to be followed with the introduction of the bill in [...]

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Crossposted from Appalachian Voices’ Front Porch Blog and iLovemountains.org Operation Endangers Community, Destroys Wind Energy Potential Residents of the Coal River Valley, accompanied by supporters from across Appalachia, took a stand this morning against the impending destruction of their mountain in the name of coal. Five activists with Climate Ground Zero and Mountain Justice chained [...]

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This is cross-posted from CCAN’s Blog Yesterday Gov. Kaine applauded Virginia’s electrical co-ops for donating energy efficient lights to Virginia State Parks, hailing it as “a major step forward” for Virginia. It’s great that Virginia is taking strides to be more energy efficient. Considering Virginia spent just $84,000 statewide on efficiency measures in 2006, compared [...]

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Crossposted from ilovemountains.org by SarahV January 19, 2009 With the opening of the Congressional session last week, and the inauguration on Tuesday all eyes are on capitol hill. This, thought the folks here at iLoveMountains, makes it the perfect time to roll out a new weekly feature. We’re taking a page from the great Stephen [...]

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The strip-mined landscape in Wise, Virginia. By Janet L. Parker, Ph.D. | January 12, 2009 (Center for American Progress) Tennessee’s recent sludge spill is an obvious reminder that irresponsible coal practices are dirty and devastating. Mountain-top removal coal mining is dirty, noisy, and scars the landscape. It has also harmed Kathy Selvage’s mother’s prayer time. [...]

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Virginia, like the nation, is at a critical juncture. The economy is declining and the climate is warming with potentially catastrophic consequences. Right now, Virginia has an enormous opportunity to secure a clean energy future that will reinvigorate the economy and curb emissions of harmful greenhouse gases. Will you join us in seizing this enormous [...]

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