Rev. Holly Shipley could think of no other way to describe it.

"To me, it's a plain, outright sin."

An up-close look at mountaintop removal brought a similar reaction from Dr. Matthew Sleeth. Standing on half of a mountain — the other half having been blasted away for its coal — “I was never so certain I was seeing hubris and sin."

Shipley, Sleeth, Mary Alice Pratt and Rev. David Miller were in Lexington June 26 to at a meeting of the Interfaith Alliance of the Bluegrass and shared their reflections about mountaintop removal.  All had been on a mountaintop removal tour in early May.

Miller said his interest in the issue was prompted by students he works with at Union College in Barbourville who had attended a faith and justice conference. The important of being involved was reinforced when he drove past some mountaintop removal operations near Hazard.

“It seemed to be more than ugly,” Miller recalled. “There was something of a spiritual nature going on.”

“This is an interfaith issue because it is a universal struggle against a system of domination," Miller added.

Panel members “not only see what is happening but our connection to it,” said Mary Alice Pratt.

Shipley recognized "my own sin of leaving a light on. I'm part of it, I admit it.”

Sleeth agreed, and recognized the need for individual action as well as collective action.

"Ultimately the power lies in those who use energy. We vote when we turn the lights on.

Click here to learn more about KFTC's religious leaders tour of MTR sites

Central Kentucky KFTC Members are taking their messages to the streets, taking advantage of the warm weather and time before the governor’s election heats up to contact new people, recruit members, spread ideas, and build real grassroots power in the community. 

Local members have tabled at over a dozen locations in recent weeks, but plan to increase that substantially, especially at small community events all over Central Kentucky.

“These community festivals are really important,” said KFTC member Tayna Fogle.  “It’s about connecting with people one-to-one, getting out there and really trying to get people involved.”

We’ll be tabling in the community at least once or twice a week through the Fall, but here’s a short calendar of some of the larger, more notable community tabling events we’ll be participating in.  Feel free to join us!

Fourth of July – Wednesday, July 4^th from 9am to 6pm (with setup at 6:30am).  Our booth is located in the section across the street from the Transit Center. 

Super Sunday  – Sunday July 15^th in Douglas Park in Lexington.

Kentucky State Fair – Thursday, August 16^th – Sunday, August 26^th from 9am to 10pm in Louisville, KY.  KFTC Members from across the state will set up information tables to spread the word about our organization and our campaigns on Mountaintop Removal Mining and Restoration of Voting Rights for Former Felons. 

UK Campus Ruckus - Saturday, August 18^th at 10pm – 1am. 

UK Student Center Spectacular – Sunday, August 19^th at 9pm–midnight

Roots and Heritage Festival – Friday, September 7^th – Sunday, September 9^th in Lexington. 

In an increasingly organized opposition to liquid-to-coal fuels and a “special interest” legislative session, KFTC, along with Mountain Justice Summer and the MTR Roadshow organized a public forum with 40 participants last night in Lexington to raise awareness of the issue.  

Forum participants included John Blair from Indiana, Mel Tyree from West Virginia, and Teri Blanton and Geoff Young, both from KFTC.

“The Economics of Coal to Oil… well, it’s absolutely ridiculous,” said John Blair, Founder of Valley Watch in Evansville, IN.  “$300 million to Peabody coal?  I didn’t realize that the health and well-being of Kentuckians is so good that we have that much extra money to throw away!”

KFTC Coal-to-Fuel Letter-Writing Party – Sunday, July 1^st at 2pm at the Lexington KFTC Office (274 Southland Drive – if coming from Nicholasville Rd on Southland, turn left at “Trumps” and drive straight back).  We’ll write lots of letters to the editor as part of a push to make a big splash – especially on the Herald-Leader Letters to the Editor page.  Please join us! 

“I’d love to have my own tax-free business with a guaranteed profit margin,” mused KFTC member Geoff Young.  “Sign me up for that!”

Participants in the forum discussed coal-to-liquid both on a very long-term and global scale, as well as a very local and short-term scale here in Kentucky. 

Senator Bunning’s office was invited to send a representative to the forum, but declined. 

An action that several speakers encouraged people to take is to write letters to the editor to make a big impact in papers throughout the state.  KFTC is coordinating directly-effected activists in Eastern Kentucky, authors, musicians, and others to send large numbers of letters to the editor all at once this week and next week.

If you live in Central Kentucky and you’d like to meet other people interested in this issue and to get some help writing letters, feel free to drop by the Lexington KFTC office on Sunday.

Tomorrow at 1pm the House Appropriations and Revenue committee will be meeting to learn more about coal-to-liquid technology and the governor's proposed incentives to coal to liquid companies.  Polwatchers has a report on the meeting:

FRANKFORT -- Saying state House members need more information on energy incentives, House budget chairman Harry Moberly Jr., will hold a meeting of his committee Thursday in anticipation of a special legislative session next week.

"We feel that we need more information.  Neither the governor nor the Senate has been working with us," Moberly, D-Richmond, said today.

Read more...

KFTC is asking their members and other opponents of subsidies for coal-to-liquid technology to call the legislative message line (800-372-7181) and leave a message for members of the House Appropriations and Revenue committee, especially if your representative is on the committee. (Find out who your representative is here)  Our message is: "Subsidizing coal-to-liquid fuel is an irresponsible gamble that Kentucky can't afford. Don't waste tax dollars on a special session for a bad idea."

This evening at 8pm KET's public affairs program, Kentucky Tonight, will be hosting a panel discussion on issues surrounding coal-to-liquid.  The panel will be composed of:

Bill Caylor, president of the Kentucky Coal Association

Jim Mayer, acting director of American Energy Security, an initiative of the Southern States Energy Board

Rick Clewett, co-chair of the Bluegrass Sierra Club conservation committee

Tom FitzGerald, director of the Kentucky Resources Council

We are encouraging members and allies to email or call into the show to make sure all the issues surrounding this boondoggle are discussed.  Some suggested topics of discussion might include:

• The economic feasibility of CTL technology and why private companies need state funds to build these plants.
• The increased destruction of the Appalachian mountains to provide the coal for this "alternative" energy source.
• CTL diesel fuel producing twice the amount carbon dioxide as petroleum based diesel fuel.

Visit our coal-to-liquid pages and check out our two CTL fact sheets (#1 and #2) for more information on the issue.

Update:

The video for the episode is now available online.  Be sure to listen for KFTC member Carl Shoupe calling out Kentucky Coal Association president Bill Caylor for disrespecting a coal miner's daughter.

This is a really interesting interview that leads with a conversation about coal-to-liquid and then talks goes into a broader discussion of coal in the US and worldwide.

Listen to it on NPR's website.

We just pulled together a cool YouTube video showcasing some of the sights and sounds from the coal-to-liquid rally we had on Monday.  Check it out!

Also, a story on our rally was aired on WMMT this morning and is up on the site here so folks can listen in whenever they want.

Here is a news update on the fight against coal-to-liquid fuel.  The Senate rejected Jim Bunning's amendments to provide subsidies to coal to liquid technologies.  From the Lexington Herald-Leader:

"Supporters of the amendment on liquefied coal argued that coal is America's most abundant energy resource. "It would be downright foolish not to take advantage of this resource," said Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.

A proposal by Sen. Jim Bunning, R-Ky., that would have required the use of 6 billion gallons of liquefied coal a year by 2022, was rejected, 55-39. A second measure that would have authorized $10 billion in federal loans to help build coal liquefaction plants, offered by Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., was turned back 61-33."

Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. My name is Sean Patrick Naylor and I am here to represent the nonprofit organization Kentuckians for the Commonwealth. KFTC is a 26-year-old grassroots organization with over 4000 members statewide working for a better quality of life for all Kentuckians. KFTC fights for social, economic, and environmental justice through member education and civic action. KFTC is the avenue by which its members voice concerns, hold elected officials accountable and participate in the policy process. I am also here as a concerned private citizen, as a helicopter mechanic for twenty one years empathetic to the needs of others in manufacturing, and as a budding policy analyst studying at the Martin School of Public Policy and Administration at the University of Kentucky.

I am here today to express our concern related to the plan by Toyota management to reduce labor costs by focusing on headcount, wages and benefits. The goal, as stated in the company memo by the President of Toyota Engineering and Manufacturing of America Mr. Sudo, is to reduce wages and benefits to the prevalent manufacturing wages in the area, and to not link its wages and benefits to the U.S. auto industry. Not only would this affect the employees of Toyota here in Kentucky, but by removing competitive pressure within the labor market, this could also have the affect of lower the quality of life for many other manufacturing employees in the region.

We feel that Toyota has a responsibility to improve the quality of life for manufacturing employees here in the state of Kentucky. Although we would like for this responsibility to be born simply out of corporate morality, it is actually more a matter of fiscal responsibility. Toyota has been the recipient of more than $420 million in incentives. This includes tax subsidies, land and facilities, purchased, built, and improved through grants and government bonds, and other benefits provided by the state.

The State of Kentucky provided these incentives with the belief that Toyota would provide good jobs that would improve the quality of life for all Kentuckians. We look to Toyota to improve the standards of local manufacturing wages and benefits, not to water down its wages and benefits to local manufacturing standards. It is hard to imagine Kentuckians agreeing to the use of so much of its public funds to continue subsidizing an employer intent upon lowering the quality of life for so many.

Manufacturing employees at Toyota contribute to the continued success of Toyota products on the automotive market here in the U.S. as well as worldwide. Toyota profits are up while they increase their market share. Employees contribute to this success through improvements in quality and efficiencies. An example of such improvements is a minor change made to the Camry assembly line, changing the point in the process at which a radiator support bar was installed, improving the access to install the engine. Such employee input shows commitment to Toyota. Now Toyota must show commitment to its employees.

We recognize that Toyota has provided for the local community through payments to the Scott County school system. But these payments have been made in lieu of paying taxes. Through this arrangement, Toyota is able to exert some control over the local school system, and the state has lost the ability to decide what is done with the more than $27 million that has been paid. It is easy to feel good about the benefits to the Scott County school system, but this is an irresponsible use of public funds.

We also recognize that the government bonds will this year be paid for through lease payments made by Toyota to the state government. But a state’s ability to sell bonds is limited, and the provision of land and facilities to Toyota through the sale of bonds tied up funds that may have been used elsewhere.

While we do not resent the incentives provided, Toyota must recognize that they have an obligation to the community. Revenue not collected due to these incentives is not available for other state needs, such as education, health care and public safety. Kentuckians expect a return for their investment, and that return is an improved quality of life.

The community here in Kentucky has made a commitment to Toyota, providing incentives and a good labor force. We should have the right to expect Toyota to continue its commitment to provide jobs with good wages and benefits, wages and benefits that improve the quality of life for all Kentuckians. Toyota has a responsibility to the State of Kentucky, a responsibility to provide the quality of life for which we have paid through the incentives provided.

Despite heat in the 90s, nearly 100 people came out to our rally and press conference against coal-to-liquid in Pikeville yesterday.  Our Land Reform Committee decided that it was important for us to present a visible opposition to the coal industry sponsored energy symposium yesterday.  So, while Senator Bunning was selling coal-to-liquid as vital to Homeland Security (because the US Air Force apparently needs liquid coal to use for fuel), members of KFTC and our allies spoke about how CTL will only create insecurity for people in the coalfields in the form of increased strip mining, especially mountain top removal mining.  Members also spoke passionately about how state and federal funds should not be used to prop up a dirty, economically unviable, non-renewable energy technology like CTL.  A number of allies from other organizations in several other states also came out in solidarity with us to demonstrate their opposition to CTL. 

We started the day at a city park in downtown Pikeville with some speakers and music (provided by KFTC member Barry Bowersock).  We then marched during the lunch hour over to the Landmark Inn where the energy symposium was being held.  After an hour or so of holding signs and handing out information to some passing cars, we had our press conference to make sure the media covered our side of the energy debate.

Here are some of the results of our press conference:

WYMT had the energy symposium as their lead story last night with lots of footage of members.

The News-Express in Pikeville also covered the symposium.  They will be presenting our side of the issue later in the week.

The Herald-Leader was there as well and got some quotes from Doug Doerrfeld and Jeff Chapman-Crane.

Here are some more photos from the day's events:

You can see many more photos from the event here.

Learn more about KFTC's campaign against coal-to-liquid here.