Two weeks ago, twenty-nine West Virginia men died in an explosion at a Massey Energy mine. It was the worst mining disaster in 40 years and it was no accident. Mike Lillis at the Washington Independent this week traveled…
Jeff Biggers, a civil rights activist and cultural historian, watched helplessly a dozen years ago as the hollers of Eagle Creek, Illinois — a corner of the Shawnee National Forest and his family’s home for roughly 200 years — were blasted away, the forested hills bulldozed by companies harvesting the lucrative coal seams underground — a scene from Avatar playing out before the movie was made.
The conflict between environmental protection and coal extraction is a long simmering political flashpoint in the Appalachian states, which are home to some of the largest coal deposits in the world. Now, amid the extended national unemployment crisis — and…
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