Dan River — America's Most Endangered Rivers® of 2026 The Dan River is a life source for hundreds of thousands of people and a sacred cultural corridor for Indigenous communities. Any project that risks contaminating these waters or disturbing ancestral sites must be held to the highest legal and ethical standards. Dr. Crystal Cavalier, Executive Director, 7 Directions of Service Threat: Two Major Gas …

A report from @American Rivers has named the Dan River as the eighth most endangered river in the country due to construction of the Southeast Supply Enhancement Project pipeline and #MountainValleyPipeline's Southgate extension. #NoSSEP #NoMVPSouthgate
Learn more: https://loom.ly/79CxPHI

April 23: Old Fort Wildfire Preparedness Workshop April 23: Old Fort Wildfire Preparedness Workshop

Join us to hear from local experts and learn practical steps we can take to prevent wildfires and reduce their spread in our community at the Old Fort Community Forum’s monthly Community Resilience Workshop on Thursday, April 23, at 5:30 pm! appvoices.org/events/april-23-old-fort...

Thanks to Gov. Abigail Spanberger for signing 7 of our priority bills into law — delivering affordable clean energy, stronger protections for communities, & helping keep rising bills in check. Let’s keep going, #Virginia! ⚡🌱
Learn more: https://loom.ly/Gqmh7Y4
#VALeg

As Energy Prices Soar, Senator Markey Introduces New Bill to Stop Trump’s Abuse of Energy Emergency Authority that Forces Families to Pay Millions in Higher Electric Bills | U.S. Senator Ed Markey of Massachusetts Trump administration forces old fossil fuel power plants to stay online without real emergency need,...

.@AppVoices is proud to support the No Big Fossil Bailouts on Your Power Bill Act, which responds to the Trump administration’s use of emergency energy powers to keep aging, coal-fired power plants running past retirement, driving ⬆️ costs & pollution. https://loom.ly/Mc0yoCQ

Join us on Thursday, April 30 in Clinchco, Virginia, for a community tree planting at Quarry Drive! Help restore a former mine site with native trees while enjoying a cookout!

🌱 For more information and to register:

https://loom.ly/Lg_FAZE

April 21: Protecting our public lands from coal mining webinar Join us for an important webinar to hear the latest on our efforts to keep the coal industry off our public land, and to learn how you can support the campaign.

Public lands in #Appalachia are under threat. The Trump admin wants to weaken protections — opening nat forests to coal mining & putting our land, water & communities at risk. Join our webinar on Tues 4/21 @ 6pm ET to learn more. RSVP ⬇️
appvoices.org/events/protecting-public...

In March, we partnered with Community Climate Collaborative to perform energy efficiency audits for several local businesses and organizations as part of our Southwest Virginia Building UP program. The audits will help to identify opportunities to cut energy use and utility bills.

😎 Want to learn more about solar energy in Southwest Virginia? Join the Solar Workgroup of Southwest Virginia in Lebanon on Thursday, April 30, for a community meeting focused on solar energy educational and training opportunities in far Southwest Virginia.

https://loom.ly/ZpoRbJg

Nearly 20 years after Kingston spill, the EPA says it wants to relax rules on coal ash The EPA says it will roll back Biden-era rules regulating coal ash dump sites and relax regulations enacted in response to the massive coal ash spill at the Kingston Fossil Plant in East Tennessee.

The EPA wants to roll back regulations on coal ash put in place to prevent disasters like the 2008 Kingston coal ash spill.

“It’s infuriating,” said Jessica Waller-Downs, daughter of a late coal ash cleanup worker. "I don't trust anybody in the government anymore. I have no trust with them.”

Support commonsense safeguards on data center growth! Virginia legislators are negotiating the budget, including how to tax data centers and whether to hold them to environmental standards.

As #Virginia leaders debate whether to continue tax breaks on data centers & what restrictions to put in place, one need is clear: We must make sure data centers’ energy needs don’t lead to more fossil fuel use.
Email your legislators today!
https://loom.ly/sntPOSY

Trump promised to cut electric costs in half. Bills in energy-rich West Virginia now top mortgages West Virginia resident Rebecca Michalski struggles with soaring electricity bills that exceed her income.

More than 1 in 3 households in #WestVirginia struggle to pay their electric bills. State lawmakers introduced bills to freeze electricity rates and help vulnerable West Virginians, but none of them passed this year.

EPA guts landmark coal ash protections, conceding to industry pressure The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency shared plans to weaken landmark coal ash protections, following a year of pressure from industry.

Yesterday,, the EPA shared plans to weaken landmark #CoalAsh protections, which roll back key parts of the 2015 and 2024 “Coal Combustion Residuals” rules — the 1st fed regulations on coal ash storage and cleanup.
Read more in our statement below.
https://loom.ly/mwO8O_0

April 11-25: Kraut Creek Cleanup in Boone, N.C. Join Appalachian Voices and community partners for the Kraut Creek Clean Up during April. Together, we’ll help restore one of Boone’s most important waterways, protect local ecosystems and celebrate our community’s resiliency  Volunteers of all ages are welcome! Be sure to bring: sturdy, waterproof shoes, clothes you don’t mind getting dirty, a hat for the sun and…

Join us this Saturday in #BooneNC to clean up Kraut Creek! Come April 11, 12-4 p.m., or April 12-25 by appointment! Many wonderful local businesses are offering a chance to win prizes for participating.
appvoices.org/events/april-2026-kraut-...

Tell the RERC how important public participation is! We are asking RERC to urge TVA's Board of Directors to hold a formal 30-day public comment period before voting on the final 2026 IRP draft.

The Tennessee Valley Authority recently cut public input from major decisions about our energy future — and we need your help reminding the nation’s largest public power provider to keep the public in its public power process. Write a letter to the Regional Energy Resource Council today!

Call on N.C. leaders to reject Duke Energy’s rate hikes Call on N.C. leaders to reject Duke Energy’s rate hikes

#DukeEnergy’s proposed rate hikes would raise our electric bills and lock us into decades of more fossil fuel pollution. It's time for #NorthCarolina legislators to stand with our communities and say NO to higher electric bills!

https://appvoices.org/actions/duke-rate-hikes/

Inside recent efforts to cut the public out of government decision-making and weaken NEPA Further weakening a key environmental protection law will not speed up infrastructure projects.

Congress wants to further gut a bedrock environmental law that gives communities a voice. Weakening #NEPA means less public input, fewer protections & more harmful projects pushed through faster.
Read about the cuts that have already happened and why we need to hold the line: https://loom.ly/JE0z1P4

Natural gasline raises concerns from residents in proposed extension path The MVP could be on track to extend south into N.C. over the objections of some residents who say it is unnecessary and question if it is safe.

#MountainValleyPipeline's Southgate extension would carry methane gas further south from #Virginia into #NorthCarolina. As legal challenges mount and communities push back against MVP Southgate, the fight over the pipeline is far from over. #NoMVPSouthgate
https://loom.ly/F9eZhgc

April 11-25: Kraut Creek Cleanup in Boone, N.C. Join Appalachian Voices and community partners for the Kraut Creek Clean Up during April. Together, we’ll help restore one of Boone’s most important waterways, protect local ecosystems and celebrate our community’s resiliency  Volunteers of all ages are welcome! Be sure to bring: sturdy, waterproof shoes, clothes you don’t mind getting dirty, a hat for the sun and…

#Boone friends, join us to welcome spring by cleaning up Kraut Creek in downtown Boone! Join us April 11, 12-4 p.m., or April 12-25 by appointment! Many wonderful local businesses are offering a chance to win prizes for participating.
appvoices.org/events/april-2026-kraut-...

Fight continues to restore unlawfully terminated EPA program A federal appeals court heard oral arguments in a class-action lawsuit against the EPA to restore a program that was helping hundreds of community-based nonprofits, tribes and local governments build better futures for communities across the nation.

ICYMI: Recently, a federal court heard oral arguments from attorneys representing Appalachian Voices and other community-based nonprofits, tribes, and local governments seeking to restore key #EPA funding to build better futures for communities across the nation.

'We won't be able to keep the power on': Customers react to Duke Energy's proposed rate hike Duke Energy is seeking approval for a multi-step rate increase that could raise residential bills by up to 18%.

Duke Energy is seeking permission from NC regulators to raise electricity rates by up to 18%.

“Beautiful Clean Coal” Is Not Only Destroying the Planet, But It Is Also Killing Miners The number of coal miners has dropped precipitously, but they are still suffering from black lung disease at an alarming rate

“Companies are not thinking about the coal miners. They’re thinking about coal.” — President of the National Black Lung Association Gary Hairston

Support commonsense safeguards on data center growth! Virginia legislators are negotiating the budget, including how to tax data centers and whether to hold them to environmental standards.

The Virginia General Assembly and Gov. Abigail Spanberger are currently negotiating the state's budget, including how to tax data centers — and whether to hold them to environmental standards. Tell your legislators to put our communities and our environment first!

Groups ask D.C. Circuit to set aside FERC certificate for MVP Southgate gas pipeline  Today, seven conservation and community groups filed a court challenge to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s authorization for Mountain Valley Pipeline, LLC, to construct the MVP Southgate gas pipeline.

“The harms that #MVPSouthgate would bring to communities in Virginia and North Carolina — higher utility bills, polluted waterbodies, and an increasingly unstable climate — are unnecessary, just as the project itself is unnecessary,” said Peter Anderson of Appalachian Voices.

Tell Congress to fix FEMA's programs! Congress is considering legislation that will improve the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s disaster aid programs. The proposed changes will speed up and simplify the process for people to get the help they need and for our communities to begin rebuilding after a major flood.

Congress can fix the disaster aid system to deliver faster and better relief to communities that need it most.
We need bipartisan, commonsense solutions that improve the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
Tell Congress to support the FEMA Act of 2025! https://loom.ly/kqe7LVo

In towns like Clinchco and Pennington Gap, residents are taking ownership of resilience efforts in their own communities. Read more in this post on the Front Porch Blog from New Economy Program Manager Emma Kelly!

https://appvoices.org/2026/03/16/swva-resilience/

The Climate Buzz Climate Buzz radio show

Our North Carolina Program Manager Ridge Graham joined Asheville's Climate Buzz this morning to talk about how Duke Energy's push to build more methane gas power plants would drive up power bills and increase pollution + what you can do about it!

👂 https://ashevillefm.org/show/the-climate-buzz/

Stop Congress from restricting solar access for rural Americans Stop Congress from restricting solar access for rural Americans

The U.S. House is pushing a new #FarmBill that would limit farmers and rural small businesses from using #Rural Energy for America Program funding for solar.
With energy prices rising, Congress should make it easier — not harder — to generate local power.
https://loom.ly/f_W9ZQw

🎉 Join us for fun festivities on Friday, April 17, as we celebrate the unveiling of Pound, Virginia's new Monument to Labor in Motion in the heart of downtown. Enjoy live local music, food, and comments from labor leaders! We hope to see you there!

https://loom.ly/ratEB44

Congress is considering passing “permitting reform” bills that would gut bedrock environmental laws & shut out ppl impacted by decisions about what gets built and where. Tell yr senators to vote “NO” on permitting changes that cut the public out.
https://appvoices.org/actions/2026-permitting-reform/

We kicked illegal coal trucks out of the national forest, but the threat of mining remains. Join us for a webinar to hear the latest on our efforts to keep the coal industry out of public lands, and to learn how you can help!

appvoices.org/events/protecting-public...