Dashing through the snow in the watersheds of some of the last old growth forest in Illinois ... are discharges of illegal levels of pollutants, including manganese, total suspended solids, sulfates, iron, and acidic water, thanks to a reckless strip-mining coal operation.

At the Fulton County Health Department in Canton,...

The clean energy battle frontline now moves to Kentucky--and that state's choice to either pursue the outdated plans for the costly and deadly Smith #1 coal-fired plant, or transition to a combination of energy efficiency and clean energy options that would generate more sustainable jobs and revenue for the Bluegrass...

Note: This is a guest post by Stephanie Pistello, Ben Evans, Jeff Biggers and Ben Sollee, co-founders of the Coal Free Future Project.

As world leaders gather for the Copenhagen Climate Summit, we plan to make our own Copenhagen pledge here at home: It's time to...

Note: As Google Earth takes world leaders at the Copenhagen Climate Summit on a virtual flyover of Coal River Mountain today, besieged residents and citizens groups from Coal River Mountain and across West Virginia and the Appalachian coalfields, along with their national allies, will hold a 2pm EST...

On the anniversary of Rosa Parks' historic act of civil disobedience, when her refusal to move from her seat on December 1, 1955 sparked the Montgomery bus boycott and triggered the rise of the Civil Rights Movement, 81-year-old veteran and anti-mountaintop removal activist Roland Micklem was arrested by law...

As a prologue to the COP 15 in Copenhagen, protesters took to the streets across the country in a national day of climate justice action. From die-ins, to fasts, to streets protests, to locked down acts of civil disobedience, citizens groups called for a halt to new coal-fired plant construction,...

Not that we haven't been informed -- that's the message from an incredible year of new books on climate destabilization, dirty energy policies, bogus Big Coal campaigns and a vibrant anti-coal movement, a growing coalfield resistance and the tragedy of mountaintop removal, and the still big possibility of renewable energy...

If the Obama administration is unwilling or unable to stop the massive environmental destruction of historic mountain ranges and essential drinking water for a relatively tiny amount of coal, can we honestly believe they will be able to phase out coal emissions at the level necessary to stop climate change?...

I think at the Obama administration we all believe that everybody has the right to live in a clean, healthy environment and a prosperous economy. And we're working towards that. We need to reach out to communities whose voices have been ignored and where there are disproportional impacts, whether it's...

This Friday, November 13th, marks the 100th anniversary of the Cherry Mine Disaster in Illinois, when an estimated 259 coal miners lost their lives to fire and the buildup of "black damp" or toxic gases. The St. Paul Coal Company Mine in Cherry was hailed by its consulting engineer as...

While one did sing, the other did shout,
And the angel unlocked the door.
He had the keys to the kingdom, Lord

Any CD album that begins with a haunting Uzbek-influenced trumpet and percussion backup on Ralph Stanley's gospel classic, "Keys to the Kingdom," and ends with Willie...

It's funny how these embarrassing announcements always come on late Friday afternoon.

While anti-mountaintop removal protests spread across the nation and at the EPA headquarters in Washington, DC last Friday, a legal representative for the Department of Interior checked the empty parking lot of the National Press Club and...

BREAKING NEWS: The Coalfield Uprising is spreading across the nation.

As millions of pounds of explosions rip across their mountain communities, including the clean energy landmark of Coal River Mountain, scores of residents from the Appalachian coalfields have joined with supporters from across the country in a series...

Call it October Madness. Or, Night Comes to the Kentucky Wildcats' Big Dance.

In a throwback to 19th century backroom deal making, University of Kentucky President Lee T. Todd Jr. and several members of the UKY Board of Trustees refused to consider any formal student statements this week during...

On the same streets in the Windy City where a young liberal Democratic activist named Francis Peabody peddled "smoke-free clean coal" in the 1890s, an estimated 400 Chicago residents marched to the infamous Fisk Generating Station coal-fired plant for the Chicago 350 Climate Action last week.

Eight activists were...

The Battle at Coal River Mountain has officially begun.

At the same time President Barack Obama invoked the "legacy of daring men and women" in our nation's quest for renewable energy initiatives, and as millions of concerned citizens rallied in support of 350.org climate change events around the...

James Hoggan and his DeSmogBlog.com posse might be our nation's most important sleuths--and they ain't even from the United States.

Not that climate destabilization knows any boundaries. Not that climate change deniers and public relation firms hired by dirty energy corporations pledge allegiance to any country's well-being.

Drawing on...

As a supportive crowd sang, "This land is your land, this land is my land," seven peaceful sit-in activists were arrested in Governor Joe Manchin's office at the West Virginia state capitol at 5pm this afternoon, as part of the growing national coalfield uprising to stop mountaintop removal mining. Today's...

Big News: In a historic move, Lisa Jackson's EPA threw down the gauntlet on mountaintop removal mining last Friday--after they had just compromised on another massively destructive mountaintop removal operation.

Is this the beginning of the end of the plunder of Appalachia--or is the EPA moving sideways to...

UPDATE: Every American--including the Army Corps of Engineers--must watch this powerful new 20-minute film by Chad Stevens on the real costs and consequences of mountaintop removal mining: Leveling Appalachia: The Legacy of Mountaintop Removal Mining

Now, the good news: On behalf of their children's future, coalfield residents and...