Today, Monday November 30^th, the Federal Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement (OSM) took a first step to clarify how they will improve their protection of streams and also clarify the rules around returning a mined area to it’s Approximate Original Contour (AOC).  This first step is really just OSMRE gathering public opinions around how OSM should improve their protection of streams and the rules around returning mined areas back to AOC. So to be clear, this is not the OSM requesting comments on a proposed change to either the Stream Buffer Zone rule or the Approximate Original Contour rule. This is OSM collecting comments from the public on how OSM might change these rules and to the extent possible OSM would like the comments to incorporate scientific evidence to support the suggested changes.

You can download the federal notice here.

All of these changes are building off of the Memorandum of Understanding developed on June 11^th of this year between the Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of the Interior (which administers OSM) and the Army Corps of Engineers. This Memorandum of Understanding is a road map for how these three government agencies will relate to each other as they improve their communication when evaluating and issuing coal mining permits.

Part of the Memorandum of Understanding said that the Obama Administration would through the legal system have the 2008 Bush Administration changes to the Stream Buffer Zone rule thrown out. However, this summer the courts rules against the Obama administrations efforts and said that if the Obama administration wanted to change the 2008 Bush administration’s Stream Buffer Zone rule change then they needed to go back through the long administrative process for such rule changes.

You can get a more detailed history of the Stream Buffer Zone rule by reading the history section of the Federal Registry, but essentially the 1983 Stream Buffer Zone rule said the coal companies were not allowed to mine within 100 feet of a perennial or intermittent stream unless they could show that their mining “would not violate State or Federal water quality standards and would not adversely affect the water quantity, quality or other environmental resources of the stream.”

The 2008 Bush administration changes did require coal companies, to the extent possible, to minimize the damage to streams when mining within the 100 foot Buffer Zone, but they also exempted certain activities from the Buffer Zone requirements such as if a stream will cease to exist in its original location as a result of the mining activity. These activities include “stream-channel diversions, construction of stream crossings, construction of sedimentation pond embankments, and construction of excess spoil fills and coal mine waste disposal facilities.”

As for the requirement that coal companies return the land to it’s Approximate Original Contour as a part of the surface mining reclamation, this has never been clearly defined. Just how much of the mine waste dirt and rock needs to be put back onto the mine site? And in Kentucky AOC does not take into consideration elevation. So a coal company can take a mountain down 300 or 500 feet but as long as the original angle from the streambed to the top of the mountain, or slope of the side of the mountain, is “approximately” maintained then for reclamation purposes the mine has achieved their AOC requirements. Meanwhile the mountain is 300 or 500 feet lower.

In 1999 OSM did a study on AOC here in Kentucky, you can read about their findings here.

If more of the waste rock and dirt were required to be placed back on the mine site and if the coal company were required to match the original elevation then less of the waste dirt and rock would be dumped over the side of the hills and into the streams below.

Here is what the federal register says about submitting comments:

DATES: To ensure consideration, we must receive your comments on or before December 30, 2009.

ADDRESSES: You may submit comments by any of the following methods, although we request that you use the Federal e-rulemaking portal if possible:

• Federal e-Rulemaking Portal: http://www.regulations.gov. The document has been assigned Docket ID: OSM–2009–0009. Follow the online instructions for submitting comments.

• Mail, hand-delivery, or courier to: Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement, Administrative Record, Room 252–SIB, 1951 Constitution Avenue, NW., Washington, DC 20240. Please include the Docket ID (OSM–2009–0009) with your comment.

Merline Davis wrote a good article that will appear in tomorrow's Herald-Leader supporting voting rights for former felons who have served their time and inviting people to our Singing For Democracy Gospel Fest on Wednesday. 

After spending three years in prison and another seven years on parole, René D. Riley of Lexington knew she wanted a better life, a fuller life, the life of an ordinary citizen.

As a convicted felon, though, Riley, 44, knew that kind of life would not be easy to achieve. Finding a job and safe housing were very difficult. Plus, she said, she realized she could not vote.

Section 145 of Kentucky's Constitution states that anyone convicted of a felony loses the right to vote. Those rights can be restored, though, through an executive pardon by the governor. Without a pardon, a convicted felon can never vote again in Kentucky.

 Riley was not having that.

"I am the type of person when I set my mind to do something, I push myself," she said.

When she couldn't find a job, she went to school. When she learned she could not cast a ballot, she contacted her parole officer.

She was supplied with the necessary paperwork to send to the governor's office asking to be re-enfranchised.

"I wrote Gov. (Ernie) Fletcher a letter and he wrote back," she said. "He asked why he should give (the right to vote) back to me."

In other news related to the upcoming Singing for Democracy Gospel Fest, we had a good set of planning meetings today to move things forward, but we scheduled another (fifth and final) meeting tomorrow, along with a set of other publicity events:

- Pleasant Green Church (540 West Maxwell Street) at 11am tomorrow (Sunday) morning.  Passing out flyers about the Gospel Fest.

- Fifth and final Planning Meeting - tomorrow (Sunday) at  4:00pm at the Lexington KFTC Office (250 Plaza Dr., Lexington).

- Flyering at the Lexington Transit Center downtown - 6am to 9am Tuesday, December 1st.  Headed up by Jan.

- Flyering Day to help raise awareness of the event on Tuesday, December 1st at 1pm, meeting at the Lexington KFTC Office (250 Plaza Dr., Lexington).  We'll flyer in the neighborhoods around Imani.

- Gospel Fest - Wednesday, December 2nd at 6:30pm at Imani Baptist Church.  This should be an extraordinary event!  We could also use more volunteers during the event itself.  Please email me to let me know if you can be there.

- Scott County Voting Rights Meeting - Thursday, December 3rd at 6:30pm at the Ed Davis Learning Center (151 Ed Davis Ln, Georgetown).  Meeting headed up by Homer White. 

Gospel Fest to Restore Voting Rights to Former Felons who have served their debt to society.

Featuring great church choirs, soloists, and hip-hop talents from all over Lexington and the rest of the state.  

Free! – But donations to Kentuckians For The Commonwealth are welcome

Forgiveness, loving your neighbor, compassion - If we truly believed all of that, then we wouldn’t have to have this discussion about whether former felons can vote or not.   God is always watching – and we’d better make this right.”        

                   – Tayna Fogle, former felon, and event organizer

Performing Groups:
- Wayside Christian Missionary – Louisville – ministry of Former Felons – "Down By The Wayside" 
- Total Praise – Lexington. House of God choir. 
- Voices of Bethsaida – Lexington. Bethsaida Baptist
- Black Phoenix Gang –   Louisville, KY. 
- Vettina People- Wright - Lexington, Ky Historic Pleasant Green
- Knucklehead Muzik.   Louisville – Former- Felons.   Hip-hop Gospel.
- Karen Dishman – solo  Lexington
- Rene Felder-Riley – solo – former -felon  Lexington
- Brandi – solo,  Cincinnati, Ohio Impact Life Ministries
- Jerry Moody – solo  KFTC member
- Elsie Speed - solo - Chronic Pain Support Inc.
- Jeff/Brianna Schultz - duo - Northern, Ky.  Kentucky Jail Ministries
- Edwards Singers: Jimtown, Ky.

Speakers:
- State Representative: Jessie Crenshaw "HB 70"
- Change Recovery House for Women: Kim Moore - Director
- Isaiah House Recovery Center:   Choe Sergent
- Brighton Recovery Center For Women:  Anita Prater - Director
- Drug Court:  Stephen Lyons - Graduate

Issue Background:

Kentucky is one of the two most difficult states for a former felon to get their voting rights back in.  186,000 Kentuckians can’t vote because of these laws – including 1 in 4 African Americans. 

We think that after someone has served their time, they should be given back their right to vote – because that’s the fair thing to do and because it make’s Kentucky’s Democracy stronger. 

Sponsored by Kentuckians For The Commonwealth
and co-sponsored by People Advocating Recovery, Never Alone, and other organizations. 

Contact:
Tayna Fogle – 859-270-9470 – LadyKat551982@yahoo.com
Dave Newton – 859-420-8919 – Dave@kftc.org

To get involved:

- Gospel Fest Planning Meeting.  Tomorrow (Saturday, November 28th) at  1:30pm at the Lexington KFTC Office (250 Plaza Dr., Lexington)

- Flyering Day Tuesday, December 1st at 1pm, meeting at the Lexington KFTC Office (250 Plaza Dr., Lexington)

- You can even download a flyer for the event from our website and post them around town or share them with organizations you're involved in.

On Monday night more than 20 Madison County chapter members gathered to meet with State Representative Lonnie Napier.  Chapter members discussed with him KFTC's 2010 legislative agenda -- everything from fair tax reform, voting rights, clean energy policies, the stream-saver bill, and even our campaign to stop the construction of a a proposed coal-burning power plant.  Representative Napier agreed to support our tax reform and voting rights legislation.  He also agreed to meet with us further to discuss our policy proposals related to increasing energy efficiency and renewable energy options in the state. 

"I thought it was a good meeting.  Rep. Napier agreed on a lot of our issues and was also realistic with us about what the session may hold," said Madison County member Megan Naseman.

The chapter's meeting with Rep. Napier was part of a series of at-home lobby meetings the chapter was having leading up to the legislative session.  Rep. Harry Moberly met with the chapter in August.  Senator Worley declined to meet with the chapter in the district.

Below is a request from our ally organizations in West Virginia. Kentuckians For The Commonwealth is encouraging our members to go and support our friends and allies in West Virginia as they struggle to build a safer, more prosperous and better West Virginia.

If you you have any questions or if you are interested in car-pooling with other KFTC members please either email me at kevin@kftc.org or call me at 606-335-0764.

And for more detailed information visit the It's Getting Hot In Here blog here.

Take Care,
Kevin Pentz

We need you to stand with us to save Coal River Mountain.

Join us on Dec. 7 at 2pm at the West Virginia Dept. of Environmental Protection headquarters in Charleston, WV for a rally and protest to save Coal River Mountain.

Massey Energy is actively blasting and mining on Coal River Mountain in southern West Virginia. The blasting is taking place only a few hundred feet away from the Brushy Fork impoundment dam, which holds over 9 billion gallons of toxic coal sludge above the Coal River Valley.  If the dam bursts, it is estimated that almost 1000 people who live, work and go to school would lose their lives.

Coal River Valley residents are doing everything they can to protect their homes and their health, but blasting on coal river mountain is something that affects all of us and is something we can all fight to stop. Massey energy is investing in the energy of the past; stopping mountaintop removal coal mining and saving Coal River Mountain is a critical step in putting the country on a path to our clean energy future.

Studies have shown that, if left intact, the ridges on Coal River Mountain have the highest and most productive potential for wind power generation.  Research by the Coal River Wind Project <http://www.coalriverwind.org/> has shown that a wind farm on top of the mountain could generate approximately 1.2% of West Virginia’s total energy needs and create at least 300 jobs in the area, while also generating long-term tax revenues.  Every day that blasting occurs the clean energy potential of Coal River Mountain is obliterated.

We need you to join us in standing with the residents of the Coal River Valley, and to help ensure that our clean energy future is not lost one mountain at a time. 

Please join us on Dec. 7 at 2pm at the West Virginia Dept. of Environmental Protection headquarters in Charleston, WV for a rally and protest as we rally and protest to save Coal River Mountain.

For the mountains,

Low- and middle-income families in Kentucky pay a far higher share of their income in state and local taxes than do the richest families in Kentucky, according to a new study by the Institute on Taxation & Economic Policy (ITEP).

“Kentucky lawmakers may be forced to make difficult tax and spending decisions in the upcoming year,” said Matthew Gardner, ITEP’s executive director and lead author of the study, titled Who Pays? A Distributional Analysis of the Tax Systems in All 50 States. “They should be mindful that the Kentucky tax system already falls most heavily on the very poorest families in the state.”

Click to enlarge

Kentucky’s Tax Code: The Poor and Middle Class Pay More

When all Kentucky taxes are totaled up, the study found that:

• Kentucky families earning less than $15,000—the poorest fifth of Kentucky non-elderly taxpayers—pay 9.4% of their income in Kentucky state and local taxes.
• Middle-income Kentucky taxpayers—those earning between $29,000 and $47,000—pay 11.0% of their income in Kentucky state and local taxes.
• But the richest Kentucky taxpayers—with average incomes of $957,500—pay only 7.1% of their income in Kentucky state and local taxes.

“No one would ever design an income tax with lower tax rates for the best-off taxpayers,” noted Gardner. “But that is exactly what Kentucky’s tax system overall does: it allows the very wealthiest individuals to contribute less of their income, on average, than middle- and lower-income families must pay. In other words, Kentucky has an unfair, regressive tax system.”

Kentucky Sales, Excise, Property Taxes Hit Low-Income Families Hardest

The main reason for the unfairness of Kentucky taxes is the state’s reliance on regressive sales and excise taxes, which fall disproportionately on the worst-off families, and on property taxes. The state’s one progressive tax, the income tax, is not enough to offset the unfair impact of these other taxes.

“Kentucky lawmakers have a straightforward strategy available for addressing its woeful tax fairness record. Relying more heavily on income taxes, and less on regressive sales and excise taxes, could help make the Kentucky tax system substantially less unfair,” said Gardner.

Some of the recommendations offered by Gardner could be implemented if the Kentucky legislature passes Rep. Jim Wayne's Kentucky Forward Bill.  This bill would go a long way towards addressing the inherent unfairness in Kentucky's tax code and would also help alleviate $1.61 billion (and growing) budget deficit.

Do you have a moment to help us secure funding for an important project?  KFTC is competing alongside 400 other nonprofit and social enterprise organizations for a grant to help us design and build a multimedia website designed to reveal the true costs that coal extracts on our land, our people, and our communities.  Our proposed "True Cost of Coal" website would become the culmination of KFTC's joint project with MIT to quantify the many hidden costs bound up in the life-cycle of coal from extraction to processing to burning to waste disposal, costs not necessarily reflected in the what we pay in our utility bills. 

The organization providing this grant, Free Range Studios, will select the winner of the grant from the 20 proposals with the most votes on the voting deadline, December 1st.  Please follow the directions below to help us build support for our idea.

How to vote

1. First, sign up here. All you need is your name and an email address so they can confirm your vote. 

2. Then, go here to cast your three votes for KFTC's "True Cost of Coal" submission.

3. Finally, you can log out and sign in again with another email address (if you have one) to cast multiple votes. With each log in, you get 3 votes.  

4. Share this blog entry with your friends and family.

Help us get to the top so our project has the chance to be chosen by Free Range Studios.

With your help, we can put a real price tag on the true costs of coal!

Both the statewide papers have editorials about the urgent need for tax reforms that are just begging for a little conversation from KFTC members.

The Herald-Leader editorial, Budgeting with Smoke, Mirrors, takes issue with the limited scope of the Governor's recent musing that raising the cigarette tax again could help the state budget woes: "...as a means of addressing the state's revenue problems, either short term or for the long haul, tinkering with the cigarette tax is akin to attacking a forest fire with a thimbleful of water."  The column goes on to call for real reforms, mentioning the KY Forward Bill (sponsored by Rep. Wayne) as an option for a starting point for comprehensive tax reforms. 

Write in to say thanks for this editorial, and by the way, our bill is the only options for reforms that would generate revenue, and generate it fairly.

The Courier-Journal editorial, Kentucky Budget: Code Red, also calls for tax and revenue reforms.  Citing a recent Pew Center report that put Kentucky in the second tier of states that are in especially bad financial situations. The column points out Pew's recommended next steps, including "lawmakers stepping up and making the tough decisions demanded by this economic crisis," and the editorial boards' frustration with Gov. Beshear in not showing leadership to pass revenue reforms. 

This is a great opportunity to write letters to the editors of these papers! Here are some talking points:

• Rep. Wayne's plan is the only plan that raises revenue while bringing some much-needed balance to our tax structure.  We need revenue, but we also need to get it in a way that doesn't continue to overtax working families.  We need to reduce their tax burden--and it is a burden, for many of these families--and let the state's wealthiest chip in their fair share.
• Rep. Wayne's plan is a long-term solution that balances how we're taxing Kentucky's working families and our wealthiest 5%. 
  

And specifically for the H-L column...

• According to the Legislative Research Committee, Rep. Wayne's bill would generate about $300 million of the revenue that we need, whereas Rep. Farmer's bill might eek out $90 million.  Why are they both being talked about as revenue solutions?
  

• The H-L editorial board is right on with their call for reform, but Rep. Farmer’s bill takes us a few steps in the wrong direction.  It wouldn’t raise revenue, and it would make taxes even more unfair to the working class.  We need real reform, not the latest fad from a radio host.  Rep. Wayne’s bill is the only real starting point for much needed reforms.

Kentucky's Clean Energy Corps will be training Green Ambassadors to teach their communities how to save on their utility bills, as they protect the environment and help promote demand for the creation of green collar jobs.

According to Jonathan Miller, Kentucky's Secretary of Finance:

"To be a Green Ambassador, you don't need to be an expert--all you need is a passion for serving your community and your planet." 
 
The Clean Energy Corps believes that training folks to spread the message about going green in communities will help to ensure that the demand for energy efficiency improvements continues when the stimulus dollars dry up in a few years.  As demand for green improvements increases, more jobs for energy auditors and green construction workers, thereby boosting our state's economy.

(KFTC will simultaneously be working through the Kentucky Sustainable Energy Alliance to pass state policies aimed at driving up demand for energy efficiency and renewable energy services during the 2010 legislative session.)

If you want to learn how to become a Green Ambassador, attend one of these upcoming training sessions:
 
Lexington: Thursday, November 19
5:30-6:30 PM
University of Kentucky Student Center
South Broadway
Lexington
 
Louisville: Thursday, December 3
5:30-7:00 PM
Davidson Hall, Room 207
University of Louisville
 
Sessions will be offered in other communities in the near future.  Contact Antonia Lindauer, the head of the program, by emailing antonia.lindauer@ky.gov or (502) 564-8642 if you have questions.

Below is a piece written by Kentucky Author and KFTC member Jason Howard, reposted from his blog, On the Margin.

Below is a speech that I gave to the Lexington Forum on 5 November, 2009. I followed Nick Carter, President and Chief Operating Officer of Natural Resources Partners L.P. and its subsidiaries (NRP), as well as Western Pocahontas Properties Limited Partnership and New Gauley Coal Corporation.

***

Good morning. I appreciate the opportunity to speak to you today, and I am grateful for the intelligent debates and dialogue that have been fostered over the years by the Lexington Forum.

As the invitation to this morning’s meeting announced, I am speaking as a representative of Kentuckians For The Commonwealth, a grassroots organization whose thousands of members work on behalf of environmental and economic justice issues across the state. I am proud to be associated with KFTC.

However, I am first and foremost an Eastern Kentuckian, born and raised in Dorton Branch, a former coal camp, in Bell County. Some of my earliest memories are of trains rumbling past, rattling our windows, the massive cars loaded down with coal. I spent hours walking those oily tracks with my father and grandmother, collecting pieces of coal dropped by the trains, hemmed in by the surrounding mountains. In the summertime, I placed pennies on the tracks with my friends, eagerly awaiting the distant sound of the train whistle.

I also listened to my family’s stories about the rough side of the coal industry. My great-grandfather, McClellan “Clell” Howard, is the first name listed on the Kentucky Coal Miners’ Memorial at Benham in Harlan County. He was murdered while in the mines because of a union dispute. His death is a testimony to what fighting back could get a miner in the early union wars.

My maternal great-grandfather, Garrett Garrison, went into the mines when he was only nine years old, driving a mule team, and worked there most of his life. As an adult, he worked in the Harlan County mines during the bloody strikes of the 1930s, and instilled in our family the belief that unionizing was the saving grace for a miner. He died an excruciating death by way of black lung. In their conversations, my family bore witness to the way coal mining can destroy a body. These stories marked my childhood as much as the coal miners I grew up around, as well as the boisterous stories they told of their workdays.

Now, years later, I am a writer. And I am still listening to stories about coal.

Tales of damaged homes, of contaminated water supplies, of divided families and communities.

Accounts of severe flooding, of sludge and coal ash spills, of alarming asthma and cancer rates.

These stories represent the true costs of coal being paid by the citizens of Kentucky—indeed, by all of us gathered here, regardless of region—a price due in large part to mountaintop removal mining.

The term is concise and straightforward: an entire mountain is blown up for a relatively thin seam of coal, often only eighteen inches. This destructive method of mining requires large areas for disposal of the resulting overburden, or “waste”—topsoil, dirt, rocks, trees (almost never harvested so the coal can be extracted as quickly as possible)—which is then pushed into the valleys below, burying the streams, trees, and animals. This activity is neatly described as “valley fills.”

The coal industry tells us that mountaintop removal is necessary for “post-mining development.” And indeed, Mr. Carter stated earlier that his company intended that the land be used for such. But intentions too often do not translate into realities. It’s something we’ve seen time and time again in Eastern Kentucky, most recently with the promise of booming industrial parks that instead remain deserted atop barren plateaus created by mountaintop removal and strip mining.

To date, more than 700,000 acres in Kentucky, West Virginia, Tennessee, and Virginia have been destroyed as a result of mountaintop removal. Over 1,200 miles of streams have been buried or polluted since 1985. Each year, the explosive equivalent of 58 Hiroshima-sized atomic bombs is detonated by the coal industry in the region.

These are sobering, hard statistics of environmental devastation. But it’s impossible to quantify the culture that is disappearing along with the mountains. The laughs of children playing in a clear creek, the memories of walking and knowing every tree and rock on a ridgeline, the sweat that went in to planting and tending a patch of white-half runners. And even more importantly, the resolve of people who are still holding on, determined to keep their land till the bitter end.

People like Rully and Erica Urias of Island Creek in Pike County, whose well has been contaminated by the effects of mountaintop removal. Their experience is especially troubling because they have a young daughter. “Our water is unsuitable to bathe in, but we have no choice,” they say. “Makayla loves to take baths and like most children will try to drink the water. We can’t let her play with any toys that she can put water into and drink from because of the contamination.”

People like Rick Handshoe in Floyd County. “We’ve gotten extreme dust, fast moving coal trucks, blasting damaging to our property, dust damaging our property. The coal trucks are extremely hazardous. We’ve called vehicle enforcement about fast driving trucks, coal falling off, breaking people’s windows. The dust is extremely bad, you can’t use your porch. You cannot raise a garden the way it is. We’re hoping it is going to get better, but we’re yet to see that.

These are the true costs of coal.

Kentucky has yet to see the benefits of mountaintop removal as well. Although the coal industry’s loudest defense of this practice is that mountain people need the jobs mining supplies, the truth is that Appalachia’s mining jobs are being buried along with the region’s streams. Mountaintop removal is done by giant machines: draglines, bulldozers, and dynamite don’t require as large a number of employees as deep mining. According to USA Today, this mechanization has resulted in a net loss of over 48,000 jobs in West Virginia alone during the period from 1978 to 2003.

In his Second Inaugural Address, President Franklin Roosevelt stated, “I see one-third of a nation ill-housed, ill-clad, ill-nourished.” Sadly, we continue to see similar statistics in many mountain counties today. What I find particularly interesting is that those very counties are the major coal-producing areas of the Commonwealth.

According to the U.S. Census, 24.7 percent of Pike Countians live in poverty. Bell County—my home county—numbers 35.4 percent. In neighboring Harlan County, 31.6 percent live below the poverty line.

These are the true costs of coal.

Despite these appalling figures, Kentucky continues to look at coal as the state’s economic savior. A recent study published by the Mountain Association for Community and Economic Development (MACED) compared the tax revenues generated by the coal industry in Kentucky with the state expenditures supporting it. It found that the Commonwealth provided a net subsidy of nearly $115 million to the industry in 2006.

This is in addition to a recently released report from the independent National Academy of Sciences that discovered coal-burning plants in the United States produce over $62 billion a year in environmental damages and “hidden costs”—damage done to crops and timber yields, to buildings and materials, and most notably, to human health, including illnesses and premature deaths.

These are true costs of coal.

Now, you might assume from my rhetoric that I am anti-coal. That is a mischaracterization and, quite frankly, too simplistic a label. I am against irresponsible mining practices, and I believe that mountaintop removal falls into that category.

I am not here to demonize the coal industry, to simply raise my voice and point my finger. That will have solved nothing. And I don’t think that would be in keeping with the spirit and tradition of the Lexington Forum.

So let me say this in closing—I recognize the complexities of living in a coal economy. After all, I’m a child of it. Kentucky enjoys some of the lowest electricity rates in the country, due in large part to the coal mined in Appalachia. And many miners working on mountaintop removal sites are doing so in the absence of competitive jobs in other industries; they simply want to put food on the table. No one wants them to go hungry.

But with the Commonwealth’s historic role as one of the primary energy producers in the country comes a great responsibility. We must also be energy leaders, thinkers, innovators.

Coming from a state with some of the oldest mountains in the world, surely we can all agree on the beauty found on a ridgeline. So as consumers, can’t we commit to using less energy—to turn off the lights in rooms not being used, at least—and thereby save some acreage?

The United States Geological Survey has projected that Appalachia will “peak coal” by 2020. Can’t we therefore acknowledge the need to begin an honest, open dialogue about beginning the transition to a truly sustainable economy?

I believe it is our duty, our moral imperative, to begin that discussion.

Let it begin today.

The Scriptures tell us “where there is no vision, the people perish.”

Let us, then, pray to be visionaries.

Thank you.