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KFTC Members Help Brief Congressional Staffers
KFTC member Mickey McCoy joined allies from the organization Appalachian Voices, J.W. Randolph and Dr. Matt Wasson, on Capitol Hill Wednesday to brief advisors to members of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure on the ravages of mountaintop removal mining in Appalachia and the critical need to immediately pass the Clean Water Protection Act (H.R. 1310). The briefing was held in one of the committee’s hearing rooms on Capitol Hill while McCoy and fellow Kentuckians Carl Shoupe, Carrie Traud and Rick Moore, was in Washington lobbying House and Senate members on H.R. 1310 and it’s companion Senate Bill, the Appalachia Restoration Act (S.696).
McCoy told staffers what it was like to live with mountaintop removal in Martin County, where nearly 25% of the land surface has been mined. Mickey told the audience,
"Mountaintop removal is an assault on the Appalachian Mountains, its people, their environment, and generations to come.
Mickey went on to share with them the day-to-day and long term impacts of mining, from the clear-cutting and blasting to the contaminated waters and dust to the persistent poverty and poor health that can be found wherever coal is carved from the Earth, clearly pointing out that his experiences were shared by thousands of others throughout the coal fields of Appalachia.
Dr. Matt Wasson provided those attending with an overview of Appalachian surface mining, pointing how widespread the destruction has become and emphasizing that our nation’s energy needs can easily be met without sacrificing the land and people of Appalachia. Wasson assured the Congressional staff members, representing both parties, that there has never been a time when ending mountaintop removal was more critical or more within our reach.
Toward the end of the briefing McCoy told the audience,
"It is not right for our government to allow the dismantlement of and entire culture for the sake of the greed of the coal corporations."
H.R. 1310 current has 156 co-sponsors from every region of the country, including Rep. John Yarmuth and Ben Chandler of Kentucky. An initial hearing on the bill may be held in Transportation and Infrastructure’s Water Resources Subcommittee as early as this fall.
Coal and Greed
Water Consumption for Solar Power
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/30/business/energy-environment/30water.html?_r=1&hp
Coal and Greed
Hi,I live in Harlan Ky,The community I live in and surrounding communities,are being destroed by underground and strip minning.We are living in very unhealthy condiotion's and do not get to enjoy our home's.I have a few video's to show just how bad condition's are.I think it is a shame the State of Kentucky and the Feral Gov.don't do more to protect it's people.It is greed that poor mountain people have to fight everyone in controll whether it is the coal operator or different agencies that could enforce the law's better or pass some law's that will protect the people and our home's.