There is a great post on the Daily Yonder blog by Judy Owens from the Mountain Association for Community Economic Development (MACED) about the history of economic development incentives in Kentucky.  Looking at the historical context of these incentives, it becomes abundantly clear that giving $315 million dollars to energy giant Peabody Energy is a bad deal no matter how you cut it:

There are lots of reasons not to like the deal that Peabody Energy Co. is cooking up to build a coal-to-liquid fuel plant in Kentucky. The incentives Peabody wants are unprecedented: $315 million in subsidies that will be on the backs of Kentucky taxpayers for the next 25 years. Worse, it’s an unproven technology that will create bigger environmental problems under the guise of solving the country’s energy dependence. The U.S. Senate considered similar legislation last month, and it failed. Miserably. The uber-conservative editorial staff of the Wall Street Journal, who are as pro-business as it gets, thought government funding of coal conversion was a waste of public money.

But even if Peabody Energy Co. were not a coal company, and made tennis shoes, cell phones or computers, this deal would be a bad one.

Like so many other big deal incentives have been in Kentucky, coal-to-liquid fuel will be a bad deal for the state’s taxpayers, small businesses, entrepreneurs, local school districts and communities in general. Why is that? It’s simple. Over the years, the incentives keep getting bigger and bigger, the toll on taxpayers worse and worse while the corporate demands grow more outrageous.

Read the full post here "Speak Your Piece: Tax Lure for a Liquid Coal Plant Will Put Kentucky on the Hook"

And, if you want to learn more about the problems with economic development policy in Kentucky and how we can fix it, visit our High Road to Economic Development pages.

Bob Edwards sent this message to us yesterday about his radio documentary, "Exploding Heritage", that he recorded in Eastern Kentucky with the help of KFTC members in that area:

If you're interested in listening to the documentary, you can purchase it on audible.com.

It seems the outcome of yesterday's meeting between the governor and state legislators with Peabody executives is that state republican and democratic leaders will join together to push for incentives for Peabody Energy on the promise that they will locate their coal gasification plant in Kentucky.  CNHI news service reports:

To get these incentives passed legislators will come together on Monday to adjourn this current special session and then ask that Governor Fletcher convene another special session in August to deal only with the incentives issue.

It seems our side of the issue wasn't discussed in the meeting yesterday, but we did get decent coverage from a few different media outlets.  Television station Wave3 spoke with Harlan county chapter member Carl Shoupe.  WHAS11 also had some video coverage from the rally. The Courier-Journal has a photo gallery from the demonstration accompanying an article about the meeting but did not give any real coverage of our members and their problems with this proposed deal with Peabody.

Around forty citizens from across the state showed up in Louisville early this morning to raise their voices and rally in opposition to tax subsidies for Peabody Energy.  Members came from as far away as Perry and Harlan counties to express their disapproval with the proposed plan and the closed-door meeting with Peabody executives.  Participants chanted, sang, drummed, and displayed signs just outside the Louisville Convention Center where the meeting was being held.  Members and allies also took the opportunity of being in downtown Louisville during the day to speak with passersby about coal conversion and the need for real alternative, sustainable energy technologies for the state. 

Governor Fletcher made a brief appearance as he exited the convention center on the way to his vehicle, but, despite our pleas, he did not seem interested in listening to our side of this issue. 

To see more photos from today's event, you can visit our photo gallery.

Two terrific new books have been released about organizing.

The first was edited by KFTC’s founding staff member, Joe Szakos.  It is called We Make Change: Community Organizers Talk About What They Do--and Why. It contains interviews 81 organizers from around the country, including four current and former KFTC staff members.  The book is designed to give people a better understanding of what it is like to be an organizer and the variety of paths people take to become organizers.  It is available here

The second is a new book called Tools for Radical Democracy, written by Joan Minieri and Paul Getsos.  Together, they were the founders of an organization called Community Voices Heard (CVH) in New York City.  CVH is a member of the Pushback Network and a close ally of KFTC’s.  People can buy the book through this website.

KFTC members took advantage of Presidential Candidate John Edwards's recent visit to Eastern Kentucky to raise concerns about the issue of Mountaintop Removal and connect it to the Senator's campaign focus on rural poverty.

During the Edwards visit, he was hosted at Appalshop in Whitesburg by local youth involved with the Appalachian Media Institute (AMI), a program that trains young people in media skills such as audio work and filmmaking. Over 100 people attended the event which consisted of three AMI representatives sharing their concerns with Edwards and an open session for local youth to ask the candidate questions or make comments. The youth who spoke repeatedly sited the environmental, economic and community destruction caused by surface mining as a major concern and a barrier to young people staying in the region.

KFTC member Nathan Hall asked Edwards how he plans to create good paying and environmentally friendly jobs in the Appalachian region so that young people like himself don't have to leave. Edwards answered that he supports nationwide carbon caps that would "make the polluters pay" and the development of a "green collar" workforce which he believes could generate over 1 million new jobs nationwide.

Outside the event, KFTC member Carl Shoupe was able to give the Edwards camp copies of KFTC's Missing Mountains and Erik Reece's Lost Mountain along with an invitation to come back to Kentucky to learn more about Mountaintop Removal. KFTC members in attendance tabled the event and had folks sign postcards that were given to Edwards with an anti-MTR message.

To read an article about the event that quotes KFTC member Rully Urias, click here. To hear audio of the youth forum held by AMI, click here.

Here is some other coverage from the day:

• Edwards visits Eastern Kentucky, The Courier Journal
• Edwards pledges to fight poverty, The Appalachian News-Express
• Edwards Ends Poverty Tour by Broadening His Theme, The New York Times

The Appalachian News-Express reports that a miner from Floyd County was killed on a strip mine in Pike County by a piece of flyrock.  The details are thin, but you can read the news report here.  This incident recalls the tragic death of Jeremy Davidson.

We recently added profiles of five Eastern Kentucky counties showing how prevalent strip mining is in these counties.

Visit our new county profiles section of our Canary Project pages to see all five of them.

Here is Martin County's profile:

(From our allies at KCIRR - the Kentucky Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights)

Lexington Mayor Jim Newberry has created a Commission on Immigration to make recommendations by the end of the summer as to how the Lexington Fayette County Government can address immigration issues.

After the Senate defeat of comprehensive immigration reform at the federal level, the fight for immigrants' rights must be concentrated on the state and local levels across the country. Here in Kentucky we continue this struggle.

The nationally widespread impulse to use local police officers to enforce federal immigration law is one that we are seeing amongst part of the Lexington population. We feel that this is a very dangerous, harmful, unfair, and exorbitantly expensive prospect that we must oppose. Our local police have made many attempts to build a positive, open, and communicative relationship with the immigrant community so as to maximize the public safety and not make immigrants fearful to report crimes they witness or suffer for fear of being deported.

On the other hand, many communities are taking a very different approach, welcoming and defending immigrants and helping them to be more integrated into the civic life of their communities through a variety of programs that positively contribute to a more harmonious and diverse public life.

For these reasons, KCIRR asks you to email members of the Commission with your ideas and suggestions for how they can best come up with a positive set of pro-immigrant and pro-community recommendations. It is also important to ask them to ignore the wrongheaded idea of empowering our local police to enforce immigration law.

Glen Krebs, Chair - GKREBS@wyattfirm.com

Jim Keller, Vice-Chair - jkeller@gmalaw.com

Barbara Connor - barbara.connor@fayette.kyschools.us

Marilyn Daniel - jomardaniel@aol.com

Wendy Devier - d1938woods@aol.com

Kay Dignan - mdignan3@insightbb.com

Ray Larson - RayLarson@LexingtonProsecutor.com

Brian Rich – brich@transy.edu

William Wharton - wwharton@lfuchrc.org

Let's reiterate that the organized anti-immigrant forces have been very active in pushing their racist agenda. They are not many but they have been trying to intimidate the Commission members, the Mayor, Council Members, the media, and many state and federal officials. We MUST ANSWER those efforts; BAD THINGS will happen if we do not respond and become active. There is too much at stake and we are not necessarily on solid ground taking into consideration what happened at the national level (as one of many examples please read at the end of this email the very negative measure passed by the Prince William County in Virginia).

Please respond. Contact the Commission members, the Council Members, the Mayor's office. Send letters to the editors of your local newspapers. Participate in the Commission meetings (next one will be at 5:30 p.m. next Thursday July 19th, 5th floor of City Hall) and especially in the Public Forum (Thursday August 2, probably on the Council Chambers).

Thank you very much for your help!