WV issues a moratorium on new permits for coal sludge underground injections
State regulators issued a moratorium on new permits for the injection of coal slurry into underground mine voids, a practice that residents of several West Virginia coal counties have complained is polluting their drinking water.

EPA clears permits on 42 of 48 mountaintop removal mining sites
The EPA has signed off on almost all of the mountaintop removal permits that has so far been reviewed under the initiative announced in March 2009.

South Carolina Says “NO” To Mountaintop Removal Coal.
South Carolina legislators introduced the Appalachian Mountains Preservation Act, which would prohibit the import of coal extracted by mountaintop removal mining.

TVA sends spilled coal ash to impoverished black communities in Georgia and Alabama
According Facing South, "TVA has begun shipping toxic coal ash from the massive spill that occurred last December at its Kingston, Tennessee power plant to landfills in the neighboring states of Georgia and Alabama."

Opponents of Mountaintop Removal are “On the Right Side of This Issue” Says Duke Energy CEO
While several dozen people were outside Duke Energy headquarters protesting CEO Jim Rogers’ decision to construct new coal-fired power plants in North Carolina and Indiana, Scott Gollwitzer, Appalachian Voices’ In-house Counsel, was inside asking questions at the annual shareholders’ meeting...

Economists: Clean Energy beats Dirty Coal in the South
New coal plants present serious financial risks to southern utilities and ratepayers, especially in light on looming federal regulations on carbon dioxide emissions.

Maria Gunnoe wins Goldman Environmental Award
Bob White, West Virginia resident Maria Gunnoe, an organizer with the Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition (OVEC), won the 2009 Goldman Environmental Prize for North America.

US States Seek to Stop Their Use of Mountaintop Removal Coal
In the first 2 months of 2009, 6 bills were introuduced in 5 states which would outlaw mountaintop removal mining, or ban the use of coal mined that way. Read more here.

EPA objects to 3 more mine permits
April 8th, 2009: Per the Coal Tattoo blog - "U.S. EPA officials have lodged objections to three more mountaintop removal mining permits that the federal Army Corps of Engineers was prepared to issue." Here is the press release from the Southern Appalachian Mountain Stewards and the Sierra Club.

Judge halts streamlined mining permits
March 31st, 2009: Federal regulators may not approve new mountaintop removal operations through a streamlined permitting process until they further study the impacts of the proposed mining, a federal judge ruled. Many thanks for the hard work of the Appalachian Center for the Economy and the Environment.

We now have a Senate Bill!
March 25th, 2009: The Appalachia Restoration Act was introduced into the Senate by coal state Senators Lamar Alexandar and Ben Cardin. Please, ask your Senators to cosponsor!

Obama Administration suspends mountaintop removal permits for further review
March 24th, 2009: The Environmental Protection Agency announced it would suspend and review permits for two mountaintop removal coal mining operations - and review hundreds more mountaintop coal mining permits to evaluate their impact on our nation's streams and wetlands.

Please thank the Administration with our new online tools.

Blasting permits issued for Coal River Mountain! Click here to ask West Virginia's Governor to stop the destruction of this mountain, its surrounding communities, and its valuable wind energy resource.

Click here to learn more about the coal ash disaster at the Tennessee Valley Authority's Kingston coal fired power plant.