Author Examines The Kingston Fossil Plant Spill And Our Song Of The Week, This West Virginia Morning

On this West Virginia Morning, author Jared Sullivan looks at a man-made disaster after a coal ash dam broke just outside of Kingston, Tennessee and the clean-up. For Inside Appalachia, Sullivan spoke with Mason Adams about his book “Valley So Low: One Lawyer’s Fight for Justice in the Wake of America’s Great Coal Catastrophe.”

Also earlier this month, the Trump administration granted exemptions on new regulations for mercury and other air pollutants to dozens of coal – fired power plants, including three in West Virginia. The Allegheny Front’s Reid Frazier reports the exemptions were supported by the grid operator for the mid-Atlantic region.

And our Song of the Week comes from folk singer-songwriter, Loudon Wainwright III, who has made over 17 appearances on Mountain Stage in every decade since the show started in 1983. We hear his performance of “Middle of the Night”.

West Virginia Morning is a production of West Virginia Public Broadcasting which is solely responsible for its content. 

Support for our news bureaus comes from Shepherd University and Marshall University School of Journalism and Mass Communications.

West Virginia Morning is produced with help from Bill Lynch, Chris Schulz, Curtis Tate, Emily Rice, Eric Douglas, Jack Walker, Maria Young and Randy Yohe.

Eric Douglas is our news director. Teresa Wills is our host. Eric Douglas produced this episode.

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