Ohio Valley Resource

Kentucky utility regulators reached a decision this week that could mean a northern West Virginia power plant will have to close years sooner than planned. The Kentucky Public Service Commission on Thursday rejected Kentucky Power’s request to perform environmental compliance work on the Mitchell Plant near Moundsville, West Virginia.

The January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol left five people dead and caused an estimated $1.5 million in damage to the Capitol building. In the six months since then, federal authorities say, about 470 people have been arrested in nearly every state, including at least 46 people in the Ohio Valley.

An analysis by the Ohio Valley ReSource showed that roughly 488,000 people in Ohio and West Virginia have lost supplemental unemployment payments after Republican governors there scrapped the federal unemployment benefit programs put in place during the pandemic.

The Ohio Valley ReSource marks its fifth anniversary this month. With your help, this collaboration among seven public media stations in three states is still doing the job it set out to do in June, 2016: to tell the untold stories in the under-served parts of our region.

Gayle Manchin is the first West Virginian to serve as federal co-chair of the Appalachian Regional Commission in its 56-year history. Her husband, Sen. Joe Manchin, is a key vote for President Joe Biden in an evenly divided Senate. Biden can’t advance his priorities without the centrist Democrat’s support.

St. Vincent’s Mission has been doing the work of feeding, clothing and sheltering the people of Floyd County, Kentucky, since 1968. Recently, the mission looked for help to reduce overhead costs in a county with a poverty rate of 27%, well above the state and national average. The mission installed an array of solar panels.

As President Biden attempts to cut carbon emissions and clean up the electric power sector, Joe Manchin can shape energy legislation to help Appalachian coal communities that have lost jobs.

President Biden’s Energy Secretary, former Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm, said in an interview with the Ohio Valley ReSource that the region could gain jobs as a result of action against climate change.

UMWA Presiden Cecil Roberts is using the leverage he has — including a close relationship with his fellow West Virginian, Sen. Joe Manchin — in order to sway Biden’s policies to allow room for coal and win support for coal communities.

Unplugged oil and gas wells and abandoned mine lands pose serious health risks to residents. But according to reports from the regional think tank Ohio River Valley Institute, those sites could be providing thousands of jobs for the region, if the federal government invests in mitigating the issues.