Tuesday, August 30th, 2016 | Posted by Amy Kelly | No Comments
The Tennessee Valley Authority was created in the 1930s to bring cheap electricity to the most rural reaches of the Tennessee River valley. Almost a century later, many residents are struggling to pay electric bills that can be hundreds of dollars a month for their modest homes. Utility-sponsored financing to help with energy-efficiency improvements would go a long way. [
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Friday, August 26th, 2016 | Posted by AV's Intern Team | 1 Comment
Education is a key part of our work, and one way we are helping residents lower their energy costs is by creating and sharing some short videos with Do-It-Yourself energy efficiency tip. This video features John Kidda, founder and President of reNew Homes, Inc., in Boone, N.C., discusses programmable thermostats as a way to save on heating and cooling. [
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Wednesday, August 24th, 2016 | Posted by Lou Murrey | No Comments
For the Schmidt family of Tazewell, Tennessee, managing their budget is a balancing act, and one they have become very good at. But high electric bills--up to $300 in the winter--makes that balance tricky to maintain, sometimes leaving very little for emergency funds, much less for the home repairs they need that could actually lower their energy use.
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Friday, June 10th, 2016 | Posted by Lou Murrey | No Comments
“We do everything we can to keep energy,” Barbara Taylor says as she heads down the stairs to the basement of the home she has shared with her husband, Paul, in New Tazewell, Tennessee since 1980. Outside it’s a humid 78 degrees, but in the narrow basement room that houses the Taylors’ heat pump it’s cool and dry.
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Tuesday, May 24th, 2016 | Posted by Amber Moodie-Dyer | No Comments
If you happened to miss our first energy efficiency on-bill financing webinar on May 11, don’t despair. You can watch the recording of the webinar, which is the first in a series describing the benefits of on-bill financing entitled “Leveraging Energy Savings: On-bill Financing as an Economic Opportunity in the Southeast.” [
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Wednesday, March 30th, 2016 | Posted by Guest Contributor | No Comments
While even the region’s top achievers have room for improvement, some of the largest utilities in the Southeast are seriously falling behind on energy efficiency. In particular, the Tennessee Valley Authority and Georgia Power are two enormously capable utilities that appear to be stuck in second gear. [
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Monday, January 18th, 2016 | Posted by AV's Intern Team | 1 Comment
Ridgeline corridors across a 67,000-acre area of Tennessee could be protected from surface mining. The U.S. Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement is considering granting the state's request for a ban.
Submit your comment in support of the Cumberland Mountains before Jan. 25! [
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Friday, October 23rd, 2015 | Posted by Erin Savage | No Comments
While the draft Stream Protection Rule is far from perfect, it is a long overdue update to protections for surface and groundwater from mountaintop removal coal mining. Not surprisingly, the coal industry had relied on “war on coal” talking points to fight against the rule, and claims these protections are unnecessary and will undermine an otherwise viable industry. Let’s examine those claims.
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Tuesday, October 20th, 2015 | Posted by Amy Kelly | No Comments
As one rural electric cooperative in Appalachia expands clean energy and technology, other utilities in the region can learn from its example of leadership. Appalachian Electric Cooperative is launching a community solar program, conducting a feasibility study for fiber optic internet and leading the way forward for rural energy efficiency programs in Tennessee.
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Friday, October 2nd, 2015 | Posted by Amy Kelly | 1 Comment
TVA is delivering millions of dollars in grants to communities in East Tennessee to start programs to help families weatherize their homes so they can stay warmer in the winter and cooler in the summer while saving money on their electric bill. People like Dorothy Ware of Knoxville. [
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Tuesday, September 22nd, 2015 | Posted by Willie Dodson | No Comments
Citizens and clean water advocates used a series of hearings on the proposed Stream Protection Rule to demand improvements to the draft version and call out state agencies for repeatedly failing to enforce regulations already on the books. Coal industry representatives, on the other hand, relied on "war on coal" rhetoric and deception to rally against the rule. [
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Thursday, September 17th, 2015 | Posted by Amy Kelly | 3 Comments
Amy Kelly is returning to her roots in the Volunteer State as Tennessee Energy Savings Outreach Coordinator for Appalachian Voices. She’ll be tapping into the natural ingenuity of local residents to help strengthen communities by increasing energy efficiency programs in the region. [
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