Appalachian Voices

Background

Appalachian Voices is an environmental advocacy group that opposes coal mining and natural-gas pipelines and supports weather-dependent energy such as solar and wind power. ¹ It began as the Appalachian Voice, published in 1996 by the Sierra Club’s Southern Appalachian Highlands Ecoregion Task Force and managed by Harvard Ayers and Nathanial Axtell. It became Appalachian Voices, a broader advocacy organization with its own nonprofit charter, in 1997. ⁴

Appalachian Voices’ headquarters is in Boone, North Carolina, and it works in a section of central and southern Appalachia that includes portions of North Carolina, Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, and West Virginia. ⁵

Appalachian Voices is a member of several coalitions, including the Alliance for Appalachia, the Waterkeeper Alliance, Wise Energy for Virginia, and Repowering NC. ⁶

Work Areas

Appalachian Voices engages in advocacy, policy work, and community engagement to accomplish its goals. It claims that “environmental justice and racial justice are inextricable, and that any legitimate vision of climate justice is contingent on realizing them both.” ⁷

It publishes the Appalachian Voice, which covers environmental news in the Appalachian Mountains. It began in 1996 as a print edition supported by the Sierra Club. In 2020, it transitioned to a digital-only format. ⁸

The Front Porch Blog is Appalachian Voices’ ongoing news and commentary platform that covers environmental, energy, and community issues across Appalachia. ⁹

Advocacy

Appalachian Voices advocates ending mountaintop-removal coal mining. It established the Alliance for Appalachia, a coalition of 18 member organizations dedicated to ending mountaintop removal coal mining. Coalition members include the Center for Coalfield Justice, Coal River Mountain Watch, Kentuckians for the Commonwealth, and the Sierra Club. ^{10  11} Appalachian Voices works to make coal mining companies responsible for cleaning up the land and water near the coal mines. ¹²

Its campaign to stop pipelines and gas extraction and transition to weather-dependent energy includes legal challenges to new fuel proposals and opposing policies that support natural gas infrastructure. ¹³ Appalachian Voices also opposes nuclear energy, ¹⁴ having voiced its objections to the establishment of small modular nuclear reactors on previous coal mining sites, citing “social and environmental problems associated with nuclear energy.” ^{15   16}

Its New Economy for Appalachia program focuses on community engagement to support new economic opportunities in the region, including new weather-dependent energy initiatives and new grant programs to improve energy efficiency in community buildings. ¹⁷

In March 2026, Appalachian Voices introduced its 2026 Federal Black Lung Policy Platform, a policy framework for federal lawmakers to improve the Black Lung Program for coal miners and their families. ¹⁸

In February 2026, Appalachian Voices, along with the Sierra Club, Wild Virginia, and the Center for Biological Diversity, filed a legal challenge against the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality’s approval for a Mountain Valley Pipeline water permit, claiming the project will pollute nearby waterways. ¹⁹

Opposition to Nuclear Energy

For further information, please see Opposition to Nuclear Energy.

Appalachian Voices has repeatedly opposed the use of nuclear power. In an October 2022 Appalachian Voices news release a representative of the nonprofit opposed a plan to place nuclear reactors in Virginia, claiming “well-documented social and environmental problems associated with nuclear energy.” ²⁰

In November 2023, the director of programs for Appalachian Voices opposed seven different proposed sites for placement of a small modular reactor (SMR) at or near abandoned coal mines in Virginia. The report claimed that “Appalachian Voices does not oppose research and development of SMRs in general ” and then recounted the anti-nuclear movement’s conventional criticisms regarding spent nuclear fuel, claiming in the conclusion that the proposals risked “bringing profound new threats to the physical safety of residents” The conclusion also stated the “recent focus on attracting nuclear SMRs is at best a distraction from building a regional solar industry ” ²¹

A 2020 analysis from Our World in Data reported that nuclear energy “results in 99.9% fewer deaths than brown coal; 99.8% fewer than coal; 99.7% fewer than oil; and 97.6% fewer than gas,” making it “just as safe” as wind and solar power production. ²²

A March 2021 analysis posted on the U.S. Department of Energy’s web page concluded that “nuclear energy produces more electricity on less land than any other clean-air source” and that “you would need more than 3 million solar panels to produce the same amount of power as a typical commercial reactor or more than 430 wind turbines (capacity factor not included).” ²³

The Department of Energy report also concluded that “Nuclear energy produces minimal waste” and provided the following evidence: ²³

Nuclear fuel is extremely dense.

It’s about 1 million times greater than that of other traditional energy sources and because of this, the amount of used nuclear fuel is not as big as you might think.

All of the used nuclear fuel produced by the U.S. nuclear energy industry over the last 60 years could fit on a football field at a depth of less than 10 yards!

That waste can also be reprocessed and recycled, although the United States does not currently do this.

However, some advanced reactor designs being developed could operate on used fuel. ²³

Nuclear power plants produce no carbon dioxide or other greenhouse gas emissions, and as of 2021 accounted for 19 percent of American electricity production—the largest source of zero carbon electricity in the United States. ²⁴ An October 2018 proposal from The Nature Conservancy noted that zero-carbon nuclear plants produced 7.8 percent of total world energy output and recommended reducing carbon emissions by increasing nuclear capacity to 33 percent of total world energy output. ²⁵

Funding and Grants

In 2024, Appalachian Voices reported $6,757,001 in total revenues. Of that amount, $1,280,280 was derived from government grants, for almost 20 percent of total revenue. ² The organization has a voting membership that pays dues. ²⁶

Donors to Appalachian Voices include the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, the Mountain Association for Community Economic Development, the Southern Environmental Law Center, the Western Organization of Resource Councils, the Climate and Clean Energy Equity Fund, the Climate Imperative Foundation, the Natural Resources Defense Council, the Environmental Defense Fund, the New Venture Fund, Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors, and the Tides Foundation. ³

Google gave Appalachian Voices a grant of $700,000 in 2025 to build resilience hubs in southwest Virginia that will provide solar electricity to communities during blackouts. ²⁷

Appalachian Voices is the fiscal sponsor of the Appalachian Solar Finance Fund, which supports solar projects across the Appalachian community for community-serving organizations, including public school systems, municipal governments, healthcare providers, faith institutions, community centers, senior living facilities, local nonprofits, and independent local businesses. Funders of the Appalachian Solar Finance Fund include the United States Economic Development Administration, which is part of the U.S. Department of Commerce; Bloomberg Philanthropies; the Coalition for Green Capital; the Educational Foundation of America; and the New York Community Trust. ²⁸

Leadership

Tom Cormons is the executive director of Appalachian Voices. Cormons earned a law degree from UCLA. He clerked for the U.S. Department of Justice and the Southern Environmental Law Center in 2005 and the Piedmont Environmental Council in 2007. He was a member of the White House Environmental Justice Advisory Council during the Biden administration. He joined Appalachian Voices in 2007 and became executive director in 2013. ^{29  30}

Tracey Wright is the board chair. She is the director of campus and community initiatives at Virginia Peninsula Community College. She joined the Appalachian Voices board in 2015 and became board chair in 2020. ³¹

Milton “Bunk” Spann is the board vice-chair. He has been a board member since 2008. He is the founder of the National Center for Developmental Education at Appalachian State University and has worked at the university for 25 years. ^{32  33}