On this West Virginia Morning, the Kentucky Mountain Laurel Festival in Pineville, Kentucky has staged a formal dance for nearly a century that has remained the same for generations. Folkways Reporter Will Warren takes us for a visit.
Anti-Mountain Valley Pipeline activists erected an aerial blockade in the middle of an access road in the Jefferson National Forest in Giles County, Virginia.
A pole planted in the middle of an access road is halting any progress on construction of a seven-mile road leading to the path of the Mountain Valley Pipeline. An activist perched on top of the 50-foot log displays a banner that reads “The Fire is Catching, No Pipelines.”
Dozens of supporters also gathered.
Tree sitters remain as they have for a month now, camping in all weather in the tops of trees on the top of Peters Mountain to prevent felling of more trees along the route. Mountain Valley has only three more days to clear acreage before a federally mandated March 31 deadline to protect endangered species.
EQT, the main company behind the roughly 300-mile, 42-inch high-pressure pipeline project, has not yet responded to a request for comment made earlier today.
The action also comes on the heels of Virginia environmental regulators approving erosion, sediment and storm water control plans for the natural gas pipeline, effectively meaning Mountain Valley can begin full-scale construction.
Last week in a court hearing, Monroe County Circuit Judge Robert Irons denied the request for a preliminary injunction.
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.
The Public Service Commission of West Virginia is requiring all water and sewer providers in the state to complete cybersecurity assessments, following an uptick in cyberattacks nationally.
The Fourth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, Virginia, decided in favor of a family whose land was condemned to build the controversial 303-mile natural gas pipeline.
Abandoned oil and gas wells can leak pollutants into groundwater, surface water and the air. But a new $30 million investment aims to clean up these hazards across West Virginia.