New Poll Shows Overwhelming Support for Clean Water Act – In Mountaintop Removal States

A new poll released yesterday of likely voters in Kentucky, Tennessee, Virginia and West Virginia shows widespread opposition to mountaintop removal (MTR) coal mining and overwhelming support for enforcement of the Clean Water Act to better protect rivers and streams from the impacts of MTR. In a statement that accompanies the release, the pollsters said: [...]

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One Bitten, Twice Shy: Don’t Trust Massey With Black Mountain

If you gave someone something precious to protect and they destroyed it, you’d think twice about giving them that responsibility again, right? And if they repeatedly violated your trust, there’s no way you’d have any faith them at all. That’s the situation the communities of Lynch and Benham find themselves in with Massey Energy, which [...]

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Kentucky Rising! Twenty Occupy Gov’s Office in Kentucky Coal Mining Fight

**UPDATE: 14 Kentuckians to remain occupying Gov’s office over the weekend in anticipation of I Love Mountains day on Monday. Watch Live Streaming Here. Sit-In at Ky. Governor’s Office Demanding an End to Mountaintop Removal. Participants include acclaimed author Wendell Berry, retired coal miner Stanley Sturgill, activists Teri Blanton, Bev May and Mickey McCoy. Pictures [...]

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Breath Of Fresh Air: Two Kentucky Coal Plants Cancelled

Great news from our friends at Kentuckians For The Commonwealth (KFTC): the coal-burning power plant proposed by the East Kentucky Power Cooperative (EKPC) has been canceled by the utility. East Kentucky Power Cooperative has entered into an agreement with KFTC, Kentucky Environmental Foundation (KEF), Sierra Club, Kentucky Office of the Attorney General and a number [...]

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Hungarian sludge spill stirs up memories of Martin County, KY

The recent images of destruction from  Hungary, where a flood of toxic mud from an aluminum waste pond has killed at least eight people, injured hundreds more and forced hundreds from their homes, are stirring up strong memories in Eastern Kentucky. This week marks the tenth anniversary of the Martin County Sludge Spill. The Associated [...]

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Appalachia Rising Converges on White House in Mass Action, Over 115 Arrested

Appalachia Rising Converges on White House in Mass Action Thousands Call for Abolition of Mountaintop Removal in Action at White House; Over 115 arrested in non-violent civil disobedience It was crazy times in our nation’s capitol this last week. Appalachia Rising, a mass mobilization calling for the abolition of mountaintop removal coal mining, converged thousands [...]

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Cracks in Big Coal’s Empire

“First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.” -Gandhi Don Blankenship‘s empire is crumbling. Mountaintop removal coal mining may well be on it’s way out. The money’s drying up. Appalachia is rising in Washington D.C. And we’re seeing some VERY interesting developments on Wall Street and in [...]

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Mountain Justice For Appalachia

It was only 5 years ago, that a group of Appalachian residents, southeastern Earth First!ers, students, crusty punks, environmentalists and many others came together for the first Mountain Justice Summer (MJS). In the summer of 2005, they traveled around to a number of communities being destroyed by mountaintop removal to offer solidarity and support. The [...]

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EPA Visits Mountain(top Removal) In Kentucky

On Tuesday I went to the town of Hazard in Perry County,  Kentucky. It’s a surreal-looking place, if you get up out of the valley onto any viewpoint the panorama that should be rolling hills stretching into the horizon, is missing something. The hill tops have disappeared.  It’s as if the landscape is a jigsaw [...]

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Top 3 Ways to Rid U.S. Need for Mountaintop Removal Coal

Those of us who are working to stop mountaintop removal coal mining are often asked how the United States would meet its energy needs without coal from Appalachia. There are a few answers to that question… 1 Be Energy Efficient One answer is that opportunities for energy efficiency in the US are huge. Individual and [...]

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