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West Virginia Coal Plants Need Upgrades. Three States Will Decide Their Fate.
By: Curtis Tate | Ohio Valley ReSource
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They’ve towered over the region’s communities for decades. They generated the electricity for homes around the Ohio Valley. They burned coal, a fossil fuel Appalachia has in abundance. But three West Virginia coal-fired power plants owned by Ohio-based American Electric Power may be on borrowed time. The Mitchell Plant in Moundsville, the Mountaineer Plant in… Read More
Evictions At A Kentucky Trailer Park Highlight Ohio Valley’s Lack Of Affordable Housing
By: Katie Myers | Liam Niemeyer | Ohio Valley ReSource
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MURRAY, Ky. (OVR) — Jimmy McRoberts knew the North Fork Mobile Home Park was teeming with animals. Some residents, like local grandmother Penny Gozzard, had two or three beloved cats they kept a close eye on; others let their pets roam around and mingle with the neighborhood kids who played around their families’ trailers. So… Read More
The ‘Beef’ With Beef: Cattle, Climate Change, And Alternative Meat
By: Liam Niemeyer | Ohio Valley ReSource
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CALLOWAY COUNTY, Ky. (OVR) — Many people might think of Blake Munger as a cattle farmer as he walks through his pasture land in western Kentucky, but he sees things a little differently nowadays. “I don’t know which is more valuable, my cattle or the pasture at this point. I used to say cattle, but… Read More
With Infrastructure Funding On Horizon, Beleaguered Martin County Looks To Raise Water Rates Again
By: Katie Meyers | Ohio Valley ReSource
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In December, Kathy Fletcher, a lifelong Martin County, Kentucky, resident and mother, found her water was shut off. When it came back on, something was wrong with it. Fletcher remembers that after she showered, her skin and nails felt completely dried out. The water smelled acrid, like chemicals. For years, Fletcher has been frustrated by… Read More
Vaccinate U? Contrary To Health Advice, Most Area Schools Won’t Mandate COVID Vaccine
By: Corinne Boyer | Alana Watson | Suhail Bhat | Ohio Valley ReSource
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Roughly a million students attend college around the Ohio Valley, and the student-age population has an especially high rate of coronavirus infection. That’s why some public health advocates say schools should require that students be vaccinated. However, a review by the Ohio Valley ReSource found that of 400 colleges and universities in Kentucky, Ohio, and… Read More
Power Switch: Solar Is Heating Up In The Ohio Valley
By: Katie Myers | Curtis Tate | Ohio Valley ReSource
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FLOYD COUNTY, Ky. (OVR) — St. Vincent’s Mission has been doing the work of feeding, clothing and sheltering the people of Floyd County, Kentucky, since 1968. “We believe that all persons have a God-ordained right to the basic needs of life in order to meet their full potential,” the mission states on its website. Recently,… Read More
Nutrition Program Summer Expansion Could Aid Nearly 2 Million Ohio Valley Children
By: Liam Niemeyer | Ohio Valley ReSource
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MURRAY, Ky. (OVR) — The Biden administration announced Monday the expansion of a nutrition program, born amid the start of the pandemic, that could provide more food to nearly 2 million children throughout Kentucky, Ohio, and West Virginia this summer. The Pandemic Electronic Benefit Transfer, or P-EBT, program started last March to provide money to… Read More
Power Player: How Manchin Is Key to Biden’s Energy, Climate Goals
By: Curtis Tate | Ohio Valley ReSource
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On Earth Day, President Joe Biden convened world leaders for a climate summit, where he laid out an ambitious goal for U.S. policy on climate change. “The United States sets out to cut our global warming emissions in half by the end of the decade,” Biden said. “That’s where we’re heading as a nation.” But… Read More
Mine Workers’ Leader Wants To Save Last Coal Jobs As Biden Tackles Climate
By: Jeff Young | Ohio Valley ReSource
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LOUISVILLE, Ky. (OVR) — United Mine Workers of America President Cecil Roberts said he’s been hearing the term “just transition” tossed around for more than 20 years as part of the long-running, nearly Sisyphean discussion about climate change, clean energy, and coal country. Simply put: he’s not a fan. “I ask anybody who has been… Read More
New Research: Reclamation of Abandoned Oil And Gas Wells, Mine Sites Could Create Thousands of Jobs
By: Katie Myers | Ohio Valley ReSource
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WHITESBURG, Ky. (OVR) — In Central Appalachia an estimated 538,000 unplugged oil and gas wells and 853,393 acres of abandoned mine lands sit unreclaimed, often polluting the air and water, and presenting public safety threats. But according to two new reports from the regional think tank Ohio River Valley Institute, these sites that now pose serious… Read More
Vaccine Hesitancy Hovers Over Ohio Valley Efforts To Get To Herd Immunity
By: Liam Niemeyer | Corinne Boyer | Suhail Bhat | Ohio Valley ReSource
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GILBERTSVILLE, Ky. (OVR) — Phyllis Gibbs wasn’t sure until recently that she’d be here, just a few moments away from receiving a dose of a COVID-19 vaccine. “Do you feel sick today?” “Nope,” Gibbs said to the receptionist. “And you give consent for Pfizer to give you a shot today, correct?” “Absolutely.” Gibbs then walked… Read More
Slip Sliding Away: Landslides Follow Flooding As Major Risk To Appalachian Communities
By: Katie Myers | Ohio Valley ReSource
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LETCHER COUNTY, Ky. (OVR) — Elaine Tanner lives with her life partner, Jimmy Hall, at the head of Mill Creek in Letcher County, Kentucky. Jimmy is a sixth-generation Letcher Countian, and the land is his family land. Together, they like to roll around on their property on their ATV. But lately, Tanner’s spent more time… Read More
J&J Vaccine Pause Cuts Into Available Doses In The Ohio Valley
By: Suhail Bhat | Jeff Young | Ohio Valley ReSource
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LOUISVILLE, Ky. (OVR) — State leaders around the Ohio Valley will temporarily have fewer doses of COVID-19 vaccine to distribute following the Food and Drug Administration’s decision Tuesday to pause the use of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine. Regional officials gave no indication that they will have shortages of vaccines as a result, but the pause… Read More
White House Climate Advisor Sees A Path To A Clean Energy Transition Through Coal Country
By: Jeff Young | Ohio Valley ReSource
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LOUISVILLE, Ky. (OVR) — For decades now, rhetoric around action on climate change has been about things like saving the planet, or saving polar bears. Just think: How many times have you seen an image of ice crashing into the sea from a melting glacier, or a sad-eyed seal atop a floe, as part of… Read More
WV Remembers Upper Big Branch Mine Disaster On 11th Anniversary
By: Curtis Tate | Ohio Valley ReSource
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RALEIGH COUNTY, W.Va. (OVR) — Monday marks 11 years since the Upper Big Branch coal mine disaster in Raleigh County, West Virginia, where 29 miners were killed on April 5, 2010. Federal mine safety investigators determined that a buildup of methane gas and coal dust led to the explosion at the Massey Energy-owned mine. It… Read More
Ohio Valley Communities Wait For Guidance On COVID Funds
By: Alana Watson | Ohio Valley ReSource
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BOWLING GREEN, Ky. (OVR) — The American Rescue Plan Act signed into law by President Joe Biden on March 11 provided the nation with a $1.9 trillion economic stimulus, including funds to state and local governments, but local officials around the Ohio Valley say they aren’t yet sure just how the money can be applied…. Read More
Biden Picks Gayle Manchin, Wife Of WV Senator, For Appalachian Regional Commission
By: Curtis Tate | Ohio Valley ReSource
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President Joe Biden has nominated Gayle Manchin, the wife of West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin, to co-chair the Appalachian Regional Commission, the White House announced Friday. The commission was created in 1965 as part of an antipoverty effort under President Lyndon Johnson. It serves 420 Appalachian counties across 13 states from southern New York to… Read More
Study Shows Bias, Conflicts Of Interest Among Doctors Who Read Black Lung X-rays
By: Curtis Tate | Ohio Valley ReSource
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Doctors hired by coal companies in black lung cases are far less likely to diagnose the disease in X-rays than are independent doctors or those who are hired by coal miners, a new study has concluded, pointing to conflicts of interest in the system that sick miners use to receive assistance. The doctors who worked… Read More
Blackjewel Bankruptcy Leaves Damaged Lands, Miners’ Compensation In Limbo
By: Katie Myers | Ohio Valley ReSource
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WHITESBURG, Ky. (OVR) — The Blackjewel bankruptcy case has been ongoing since the summer of 2019 when Blackjewel, LLC abruptly collapsed, leaving over 2,000 miners in Wyoming, Kentucky and West Virginia without their jobs, their benefits, or their final paychecks. In protest, Kentucky miners spent much of that summer camped on the railroad tracks to… Read More
Prisoners And The Pandemic: A Year Into COVID, Crowded Jails Fuel Infections In Ohio Valley
By: Alana Watson | Ohio Valley ReSource
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BOWLING GREEN, Ky. (OVR) — When the first coronavirus cases were reported last year, Warren County, Kentucky, Jailer Stephen Harmon knew there was going to be a COVID-19 outbreak in his jail. It was just a matter of when. “We tried our best to keep it from happening,” he said. “However with this many people… Read More
Coal Mine Safety Regulators Issue COVID Protection Guidelines, But No Regulations
By: Jeff Young | Ohio Valley ReSource
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LOUISVILLE, Ky. (OVR) — The U.S. Department of Labor announced Wednesday stronger coronavirus safety guidance intended to keep coal miners safe from COVID-19 in the workplace. However, the Labor Department’s Mine Safety and Health Administration stopped short of issuing an emergency standard — as the mine workers’ union had requested — and instead kept to… Read More
Biden’s COVID-19 Bill Championed As A Boon For Failing Ohio Valley Pensions
By: Liam Niemeyer | Ohio Valley ReSource
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MURRAY, Ky. (OVR) — Major unions and one of their leading allies in the U.S. Senate are hailing tens of billions of dollars allocated for shoring up struggling union pension funds. The funding added to President Joe Biden’s $1.9 trillion COVID relief bill, dubbed the Butch-Lewis Act, would provide $86 billion to dozens of failing… Read More
As Lawmakers Prioritize Broadband, Rural Communities Wonder When It Will Reach Them
By: Liam Niemeyer | Ohio Valley ReSource
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TOLU, Ky. (OVR) — As Barkley Hughes and I rumbled around in his red utility vehicle last month, memories slowly unwound about his western Kentucky hometown. Tolu, a historic Ohio River-bound community of less than a hundred, only makes up a few blocks before opening up into rolling farmland. Hughes openly admits it’s not near… Read More
Vaccine Experts Answer Your Questions About Pfizer, Moderna And Johnson & Johnson Vaccines
FRANKFURT, Ky. (OVR) — More than 2.5 million people in Kentucky, Ohio and West Virginia have been vaccinated with at least one dose of the Moderna or Pfzier COVID-19 vaccines. Little by little, states have received more vaccine doses, but the national supply remains low. However, more promise is on the horizon as the U.S…. Read More
Climate Change Increases Flooding Risk For Some 230,000 Ohio Valley Homes
By: Suhail Bhat | Jeff Young | Ohio Valley ReSource
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LOUISVILLE, Ky. (OVR) — A new analysis of flooding risk that accounts for the effects of climate change finds many more homes in Appalachian communities in Kentucky, Ohio and West Virginia are at risk of flooding than the federal government’s emergency managers have indicated. In 12 Appalachian counties in the region, at least half of… Read More
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