Goodbye Massey and Thanks For Nothing

After months of speculation, Massey Energy, the most controversial coal mining company in the USA, is no more. On Saturday Alpha Natural Resources announced that it had bought out the…

Account of action & arrest in DC by George Lakey

George Lakey and the Earth Quaker Action Team, joined us on Monday at Appalachia Rising in Washington DC, to protest mountaintop removal mining. His account of our action at PNC…

Citizens Occupy PNC: The Bank of Mountaintop Removal

UPDATE: Four brave activists were arrested at today’s PNC sit-in, including Reverend Billy Talen, George Lakey, Alexa Ross and Liz Nerat. Today, as part of Appalachia Rising, the largest protest…

Community Transition in the Coal River Valley

I’m  a big fan of Transition Theory – a model of socioeconomic localization, developed by Rob Hopkins where communities come together to envision and then develop a future where they…

EPA: Don’t Let King Coal Dump on US

Today RAN and our friends in DC dumped 1,000 pounds of Appalachian dirt onto the front lawn at the EPA’s headquarters. Our message? “EPA: Don’t let King Coal dump on…

Two Very Different Acts of God in Appalachia

A few weeks ago, Massey Energy went on a PR offensive to promote the concept that the worst US mine disaster in 40 years – at Massey’s Upper Big Branch…

The True Cost of Coal

My friend and mentor David Solnit often talks about “a movement of movements.” He describes them as a convergence space where we experiment with and test our resistance to power….