Tennessee photographer Stacy Kranitz is attracting attention for her visceral photos of life in Appalachia and the South. Sometimes her photos are hard to look at, but they’re always compelling. That’s the case with a project published earlier this year. ProPublica’s story, “The Year After a Denied Abortion,” follows a young family in Tennessee.
In both lawsuits, Appalachian Power alleges that ACNR failed to deliver more than one million tons of coal to three power plants in West Virginia in 2021 and 2022.
The John Amos, Mountaineer and Mitchell plants were idled for prolonged periods late last year amid the shortfall. Some of the outages were for routine maintenance and repair, the company testified.
Without the plants running, Appalachian Power had to purchase electricity from the PJM market to meet customer needs, but at high prices. PJM is a regional electricity market that includes West Virginia and 12 other states. Coal and natural gas prices have been high since last year.
Residents, local governments and industrial users have uniformly opposed the proposal. The average residential user would pay $18 more a month if the PSC approves the request.
On Tuesday, 17 members of Charleston’s City Council filed a letter with the PSC in opposition.
The New York lawsuit doesn’t specify a damage amount. It says the coal supply problems have persisted into 2022.
On this West Virginia Morning, the Mountain Valley Pipeline failed a water pressure test in Virginia earlier this month and the Pipeline Safety Trust is urging federal regulators to take a close look at the failure. Also, in this show, we hear about radioactive waste in the Marcellus Shale fields, one of the country's largest natural gas producing formations.
The Supreme Court has declined to take up another appeal from a group of landowners challenging the use of eminent domain by developers of the Mountain Valley Pipeline. The decision comes as many await a decision by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission on whether the pipeline can begin service by May 23. Developers have asked to begin running gas in the pipeline by June.
PSC Chair Charlotte Lane said U.S. Environmental Protection Agency rules would jeopardize hundreds of millions of dollars of investments in the state’s coal fleet.