The short film Young Black Voter traces the personal journey of aspiring Kentucky filmmaker Lavel White from a self-described disengaged youth—who occasionally committed petty crimes—to a hopeful young adult, actively involved in the political process and community issues.

This is a production of KET and Making Connections Louisville, made possible with support from the ITVS Vote Democracy! public television station grant initiative.

Many KFTC members met Lavel for the first time this past weekend at the PUSHBACK Convening and saw his film.  He's a new KFTC member now, and is especially interested in getting more involved in our campaign to restore voting rights to former felons who have served their debt to society. 

There were three strong energy/coal related Op-eds in the Lexington Herald-Leader today.  If you missed them, check them out online.

Costly King Coal, by Mick McCoy

Solar payback in Kentucky, by Matthew Partymiller

A renewed source of renewable energy, by Greg Kocher

Sixteen Kentuckians with KFTC and our allies at KY Jobs With Justice have been in Nevada for the last several days at a big convening of the PUSHBACK Network.  Over 160 members and staff from PUSHBACK ally organizations gathered to make connections between our various grassroots base-building organizations so we can learn from eachother, particularly around voter empowerment campaigns to educate and mobilize voters in our respective states.  

It's an honor and a privilege to be here and to share with this group.  It's about meeting people and really coming together to build the world we want to see. - Tayna Fogle, Kenton County

    

Workshops included pieces on the US Census, inter-generational organizing, integrating voter work with issue work, fundraising, green jobs, voter list management, and tax and fiscal policy.  There was also a strong emphasis on peer-to-peer learning - making connections between organizations and members to lead to more exchanges and learning in the future.

"The networking here is great," said Jim Shepard of Perry County. 

I'm just so proud of Kentucky!  This is a powerful coalition and we're really representing our state and leading so much of it." - Angela Rudd, Louisville

"I thought this was really great," said Janet Tucker of Lexington.  "I still have so many questions."

"There's also a lot of work to get done," added Sean Thomas.  "But we're better equipped and motivated to do it!"

Recently more than a dozen local KFTC chapter leaders converged in Frankfort for a “Build Power, Build Chapters” training.  Leaders from Central Kentucky, Madison County, Jefferson County, where there are strong local chapters, came together to share their work and learn from each other.  KFTC members from Frankfort and Northern Kentucky also joined for the day to learn how to build a new chapter in their area.“I got a lot out of it,” said Jefferson County member Ben Evans. 

During the 5 ½ hour training leaders learned about the characteristics that make a strong chapter, a snapshot of how various, current chapters function, and how important local chapters are to building power. “I enjoyed seeing the “life-cycle of a chapter” graph – the ups and downs -- it reminded me of myself!” said Madison County member Tom Hubbard.

Folks also spent the afternoon discussing how to build our personal networks to connect more people to KFTC and strengthen our chapters.  

The energy throughout the day was great.  Leaders enjoyed sharing and celebrating all of their efforts with each other.  Jefferson County leader Becki Winchel said, “We need circle back pats to appreciate each other for all we do and the support we have from each other and give to each other to keep on doing it as often as possible.”

In an attempt to share more of the stories from former felons across the Commonwealth, we’re presenting a series of short interviews every few weeks on our blog.

"I've lived a lot of places in my life," says KFTC member and new former felon spokesperson Jim Shepherd.  "All over the US, really; but my family is from Hazard, I've lived here for the last five years, and I'm planning on staying."

"I've always been very political," says Shepherd,"But a lot of the time, I don't feel like a part of the American Democracy."

Jim Shepherd lost his right to vote several years ago for a drug charge.  He recognizes that he made a mistake and even turned himself in.  Since then, he's served out his sentence and returned to the community, contributing in numerous ways.

"A lot of good people make bad choices in life... and sometimes they get caught," says Jim.

I don't see how restricting voting rights of former felons helps fight crime.  They still have opinions, values and families.  I think it hurts the people around them more - their neighborhoods, families, and friends.

"Frankly, it makes the idea of 'paying your debt to society' a myth.  How can you be considered free if you can't even take part in voting?," adds Shepherd. 

"Sometimes I do really feel like I have influence in this Democracy, though - and I really do have a voice," says Shepherd.  "I talked to Senator Brandon Smith during the General Assembly along with other KFTC members a few months ago.  He listened and helped to connect us to other senators to build support for our Voting Rights bill.  That made me feel connected as a part of KFTC's work."

Towards the end of our interview, we talked about the current process that former felons can use to apply to get their rights back through a pardon from the Governor.  Jim Shepherd hesitated as he thought about it.  "I might not apply to get my rights back until everyone else gets them back automatically" (when we win our Constitutional Amendment), he said.  "Somehow it doesn't feel right to take part in a rights restoration process that is so backwards.  People shouldn't have to do that.  I don't know - I'll think about it."

Close to two hundred people lined up for the Senate hearing on the Appalachia Restoration Act, from both sides of the mountaintop removal coal mining issue. Only about sixty were able to fit into the main Senate Committee chamber in Dirkson Senate Building; the rest were directed to an overflow room in a nearby senate building. Photo by Jamie Goodman

Several experts described the significant and permanent destruction the coal industry is creating in the Appalachian coalfields at a U.S. Senate committee hearing yesterday.

In the first-even Congressional hearing focused specifically on mountaintop removal, members of the Senate Public Work and Environment subcommittee on water and wildlife were told.

"The streams that are buried when rocks and dirt are dumped over the side of the mountain into the valleys below are gone forever, and there is no evidence to date that mitigation actions can compensate for the lost natural resources and ecological functions of the headwater streams that are buried."

Dr. Margaret Palmer, a University of Maryland ecologist who has studied mountaintop removal, went on to say that the impacts of burying headwater streams were felt for many miles down stream and are permanent. She said, for example, that elevated stream levels of selenium in some cases were found "50 years out."

Two of the senators on the committee seemed to have studied the issue enough to already know those facts.

Citizens for Coal discuss the mountaintop removal coal mining issue with Cody Simpkins of Kentuckians for the Commonwealth. Photo by Jamie Goodman

"There is no denying coal's significance to the culture and economy of Appalachia," said Sen. Benjamin Cardin (D-MD), chair of the subcommittee. "However, mountaintop coal mining is a long-term assault on Appalachia's environment, economy, culture, and the health of its citizens."

Acknowledging that the Obama administration has taken some first steps toward protecting water quality,  Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-TN) said: "The administration's decision will bring tighter scrutiny, but it is still important to pass the Cardin-Alexander legislation that would prohibit blowing off the tops of mountains and putting the waste in our streams.  Coal is an essential part of our energy future, but it is not necessary to destroy our environment in order to have enough of it."

Tennessee Deputy Commissioner of Environment and Conservation Paul Sloan encouraged lawmakers to expand that prohibition to protect the region's vital headwaters streams. He said the practice of burying headwater streams is not allowed in Tennessee because of a state law.

Marie Gunnoe of the Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition testified as a coalfield citizen and urged Congress to "stop the annihilation of mountains and people by mountaintop removal" and seize the opportunity to create an new energy future for the coalfields.

Randy Pomponio, director of environmental assessment for a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency regional office, said mountaintop removal buries an average of 120 miles of streams a year, and studies show valley fills not only eliminate those waterways, but also degrade water quality downstream.

The only witness who defended mountaintop removal was Randy Huffman, secretary of the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection.

Alexandar called yesterday's hearing the first of several. Dozens of coalfield residents were present for the hearing, including a KFTC delegation.

It sounds crazy, doesn't it?

Kentucky has a $1 billion budget deficit.  Instead of passing sound reforms to our tax and revenue system — reforms that tax policy groups and economists recommend, even and especially during a recession — our elected officials decided to pass more random and thoughtless tax breaks.  We still have a broken system, and now we'll have deeper cuts to the services and structures that we all rely on to stay safe, healthy, wealthy, and wise.

These tax breaks will cost the state a projected $23 million this year, and $84 million next year — just a hair short of what a 15% state Earned Income Tax Credit to help low and middle income wage earners would have cost. 

Here are the tax breaks they passed:

• Income tax exemption for active military personnel.

• Up to $5,000 tax credit for people buying a newly-built house.  Not an older home, but only a brand-spanking new house. 

•  A tax credit for people trading in their car to buy another car.  Instead of paying the sales tax on the full price of the newer car, they’ll pay sales tax on the difference of the new and old car.

What do you think?

More than 60 Appalachian coalfield residents are in Washington DC at this moment waiting for the start of the Senate committee hearing on mountaintop removal. The 3:30 p.m. EDT hearing before a subcommittee of the Senate Public Works Committee will look specifically at the impacts of water quality resulting from this practice.

A KFTC delegation is part of the group gathered. They spent yesterday and last night helping prepare personal stories and data for committee members. They also were excited to receive supportive statements from Kentucky members in the U.S. House, Reps. John Yarmuth and Ben Chandler.

At a time when Kentucky must have a special Legislative session to address a $996 million budget shortfall,  the Mountain Association for Community Economic Development (MACED) today released a report, The Impact of Coal on the Kentucky State Budget, showing that in 2006 the state budget had a net impact loss of  $115 million from the coal industry operating in Kentucky. 

Coal hasn’t been paying their fair share, so who’s picking up the tab? It’s us, the taxpayers. It’s costing us more than just what we pay out in electric bills.

Suzanne Tallichet, KFTC member from Rowan County

From the report:

For Rully Urias and his Pike County family, “It’s a big slap in the face, what the coal industry does to the taxpayer.”  Like too many other KFTC members the Urias family lives in the shadow of the other cost of coal.

Coal is responsible for an estimated $528 million in state revenues and $643 million in state expenditures. The $528 million in revenues includes $224 million from the coal severance tax and revenues from the corporate income, individual income, sales, property (including unmined minerals) and transportation taxes as well as permit fees.

The $643 million in estimated expenditures includes $239 million to address the industry’s impacts on the coal haul road system as well as expenditures to regulate the environmental and health and safety impacts of coal, support coal worker training, conduct research and development for the coal industry, promote education about coal in the public schools and support the residents directly and indirectly employed by coal. Total costs also include $85 million in tax expenditures designed to subsidize the mining and burning of coal.

The Report also clearly points out what is not included in these figures:

These figures cover only a portion of the full costs of the coal industry to the state. We do not include the many externalized costs imposed by coal including healthcare, lost productivity resulting from injury and health impacts, water treatment from siltation caused by surface mining, water infrastructure to replace damaged wells, limited development potential due to poor air quality, and social spending associated with declines in coal employment and related economic hardships of coalfield communities.

The residents of Lynch in Harlan County recently learned about another unaccounted cost. At the permit hearing on June 18, Jennifer Thompson of the Department of Natural Resources stated, "The [SMCRA] regulations do not consider future economic considerations." - meaning that the lost of economic development potential of tourism, wind power of even a springwater bottling facility in the Tri-Cities are irrelevant to those considering whether to permit mining or not.

The MACED report is featured in today's Herald Leader: Report: Coal industry costs state government

KFTC members joined hundreds of other coalfields residents and some well-known public figures in West Virginia yesterday to protest the coal industry's indifference to the health and lives of people in their way.

They gathered near the Marsh Fork Elementary School to draw attention to the threat posed by Massey Energy's mining and coal processing operations, and to the larger issue of mountaintop removal.

The story of Marsh Fork Elementary is one of the most egregious examples of the threat coal poses to communities throughout Appalachia. Perched in the valley above this school is an enormous sludge pond, and a coal silo that literally casts it shadow on the school itself. Though the ground below the school and the impoundment is honeycombed with abandoned deep mines, Massey is blasting for new mine sites in the surrounding hills. If that impoundment were ever to fail, the children in the school would have about 3 minutes to escape to safety.

 Click to enlarge

Yesterday's action began near the school grounds, with a series of speakers telling their personal stories and calling for an end to mountaintop removal and for the development of a new, clean energy economy in Appalachia. Among the speakers were actress Daryl Hannah, NASA climate scientist James Hansen, and KFTC member Mickey McCoy.

Massey also turned out its miners and their family members in force.

According to a report in the Charleston Gazette, "Speeches at the rally were often difficult to hear, drowned out at times by a large crowd of miners and their families who gathered around the stage and frequently shouted at and tried to argue with the speakers. Other miners blew air horns, revved motorcycle engines and blasted car stereos."

Following the speeches, the crowd marched down the road a short distance to the bridge that crosses the Coal River to Massey’s adjacent mountaintop removal site. The bridge was completely blocked by Massey's group so 29 activists sat down on the road to block traffic in an act of peaceful civil disobedience and were quickly arrested by the West Virginia State Police. Hannah, Hansen, former West Virginia Secretary of State Ken Hechler and KFTC member John Hennen were among those arrested. A coal miner’s wife was also jailed when she physically assaulted long-time activist Judy Bonds.

Hansen said he was there because coal is "where we need to start to solve the climate issue."  Others were upset that although the Obama administration has taken steps to lessen the most outrageous consequences of mountaintop removal, it has not taken steps to end the practice.

KFTC member Mickey McCoy and actress Daryl Hannah.

"Todays action at Marsh Fork showed that KFTC along with other organization such as OHVEC [Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition] and Mountain Justice can work together for a common cause," Mick McCoy said last night. " I appreciate the heightened activities that KFTC are taking to fight the injustices in Kentucky and Appalachia brought about by mountaintop removal."

Coverage

• Photos by photojournalist Antrim Caskey
• Video and news story in the Charleston Gazette
• Coal Tattoo blog by Ken Ward Jr.