CKY members Phillip and Laura just learned about the negative impacts of mountain top removal mining on our communities and land. Excited to show their support to everyone working to create a clean energy future for Kentucky they made posters in preparation for I love mountains day. Phillip wrote a statement about why he was coming to the rally:

"I missed a pajama party, movie, and passing out Valentine's Day cards all to go to the I Love Mountains Day rally.  I did this to show my love to the U.S.A.'s oldest mountains.  People die!  Animals die!  People die from breathing in coal dust and getting cancer from drinking toxic water.  Imagine, cutting off mountain tops for coal is like cutting our heads off for blood.  If mountains did what we did to them we wouldn't like it!"

Laura wrote a haiku to express what's happening in Appalachia:

Mountains are sacred

Their home is our Kentucky

Sadly they're dying

It's been really exciting to see young people learn about this issue and get excited to make change. Keep up the good work guys!

Central Kentucky KFTC member Abigail Dority had never lobbied before when she attended the economic justice lobby day in Frankfort with us this January. Since then, she has come with us to the capitol several times and was a lobby captain during our voting rights lobby and rally day. Here are her reflections from her first time in Frankfort:

It was at the economic justice lobby day I got my first taste of lobbying at the capital.  Perhaps I should say ATTEMPTED lobbying, as my group was unable to meet with any of our target legislators.  Instead of speaking out for the people of Kentucky on fair and adequate taxation, we left notes. Although our lack of audience with our lawmakers was frustrating, I still considered the day a success.

Our day began with a brief introduction of important pieces of legislation regarding economic justice.  We were supplied with specific information about the upcoming bills and tips on speaking effectively about the issues in little yellow folders along with encouragement and a spirit of camaraderie.  It was so wonderful to meet and spend time with others that care about our fair state and are willing to work towards creating the kind of Kentucky we and our children deserve!  Then, after our issue orientation, we set out to engage our legislators in a dialogue about the type and processes of tax legislation the people of Kentucky are due.  After leaving notes, we ended the day with a KFTC press conference.  The short meeting included a brief overview of Representative Wayne's proposed bill, which would lower income tax for 80% of Kentuckians while still generating an annual increase of tax revenue to support the educational, environmental, and social programs Kentucky needs to be great, followed by two community speakers.  One of the speakers, Linda Stettenbenz, an active member of KFTC, was truly inspiring.  Linda spoke eloquently about how desperately tax reform is needed in the Bluegrass and her vision for how Kentucky can meet its slumbering potential with adequate funding and programs that enable and encourage Kentuckians to succeed.

All in all it was a good day in support of a great cause!

Abby's tips for a successful day at the capital:

1) Buy coffee BEFORE you go.  The coffee at the capital sucks!

2) Wear comfy shoes; you'll be doing a lot of walking.

3) Bring a pocket dictionary in case you have to leave notes if, like me, you are a less than stellar speller.  Desparately? Desperately? Desperatly? Who knows?!

4) Remember who you are and why you're there.  The legislators are there to serve you-you deserve to be heard!

5) Have realistic expectations.  You may have to write notes instead of delivering impassioned speeches.

6) Bring snacks!  The cafeteria food is nothing to write home about.

7) Have fun and take pride in the fact that you are making your voice heard (even if the voice is contained in a note)!

Tomorrow, our Kentucky Forward Revenue Plan (HB 318) will have a hearing in House Appropriations and Revenue Committee for the first time since the House's shift in leadership.

We all want a strong commonwealth. Good schools with reasonable class sizes, quality health care, and neighborhoods and communities that are protected, safe, and healthy.  But to move Kentucky forward, our elected leaders need to start getting serious about choosing solutions. The Kentucky Forward Revenue Plan is a solution.  It would help move Kentucky forward by creating a more balanced tax structure that generates substantial revenue. 

Several legislators on the A and R Committee are new to that committee and to the bill, and getting their support for the bill and the principles it stands behind--fairness, adequacy, and sustainability--will be an important step toward building support for the bill. 

Take Action 

Call the members of the House Appropriations and Revenue Committee in support of HB 318!

The number to the Legislative Message Line is 1-800-372-7181.  Call anytime today before 11 p.m.  Leave a message for members of the House Appropriations and Revenue Committee.  (The representatives on that committee are Reps. Rand, Arnold, Butler, DeWeese, Nesler, Simpson, Yonts, Adams, Carney, Comer, Crenshaw, Crimm, Denham, Flood,  Ford, Graham, Hall, Henderson, J. Lee, Meeks, Napier, Overly, Rader, Richards, Santoro, Stewart, Turner, Wayne, Webb-Edgington, and Westrom)

Message: "I support the revenue plan in House Bill 318 and am glad the committee is

advancing the conversation we need to have about solutions that will move Kentucky forward."

And of course, come to tomorrow's hearing if you can!

Tuesday, March 1 at 10 a.m. in Room 154 of the Capitol Annex.

House Bill 239, the Clean Energy Opportunity Act, sponsored by Representative Mary Lou Marzian (D), will be heard in committee this Thursday. This bill would jumpstart a state clean energy market and create thousands of new jobs. KFTC supports this bill - learn more about the bill here.  Here is how you can help:

Attend the hearing of, the Clean Energy Opportunity Act...
Thursday, March 3rd. 10 a.m. Frankfort, Capitol Annex, Room 131. Learn more here.

Or, if you can't make the hearing, call the members of the committee where it's assigned in support of the bill. 

Call: 1 (800) 372-7181

Leave a message for members of the House Tourism Development and Energy Committee (Representatives Combs, Harmon, Kim King, Steele, Adams, Bratcher, Clark, Dossett, Edmonds, Flood, Gooch, Greer, Hall, Henley, Kerr, Martha Jane King, McKee, Osborne, Short, Wuchner, and York)

Message: "I support House Bill 239 and am glad the committee is advancing the conversation we need to have about how renewable energy and energy efficiency investments can benefit all Kentuckians by hearing this bill."

KFTC member Mary Love looks forward to being at the hearing. "This is the second year this bill has been introduced and we are excited to get a hearing on it. I think it's important because the bill will provide for lower electric bills and more jobs in Kentucky through use of energy efficiency and renewables and that's something we all need to be talking about."

 Read the Lexington Herald Leader's editorial in favor of this bill.

Author and journalist Jeff Biggers has just published a great piece on the extraordinary lengths Appalachian legislators have gone to to protect the coal industry, attack the EPA, and silence citizen voices in the process of protecting their land, air, and water.  The piece contains several quotes from our members and ties in to the Kentucky Rising sit-in in Governor Beshear's office earlier this month.

Kentucky state legislature had a new take on nullification. Only days afters celebrated author Wendell Berry and 13 other Kentuckians, including a retired coal miner and inspector, occupied Gov. Steve Beshear's office in a protest over the state's 40-year crisis of mountaintop removal mining, the Kentucky state legislature attempted to officially establish a "sanctuary state" for the coal industry that would be exempt from "the overreaching regulatory power.” This sanctuary for coal companies would reportedly cost the state of Kentucky an additional $115 million each year in state funds for maintenance and health damages.

A host of national organizations, from MoveOn.org to the Sierra Club to AFL-CIO and Jobs with Justice, are hosting rallies across the nation at state capitols, all this Saturday at noon.

From the facebook event page:

Calling all students, teachers, union members, workers, patriots, public servants, unemployed folks, progressives, and people of conscience: In Wisconsin and around our country, the American Dream is under fierce attack. Instead of creating jobs, Republicans are giving tax breaks to corporations and the very rich and then cutting funding for education, police, emergency response and vital human services. The right to organize is... on the chopping block. The American Dream is slipping out of reach for more and more Americans, and we have to fight back.

We call for emergency rallies in front of every state house this Saturday at 12 Noon to stand in solidarity with the people of Wisconsin. We demand an end to the attacks on workers' rights and public services across the country. We demand investment, to create decent jobs for the millions of people who desperately want to work. And we demand that the rich and powerful pay their fair share. After decades of stagnant wages and a crushing recession, this latest assault on the American way of life is one the middle class cannot endure.

We are all Wisconsin.
We are all Americans.

This Saturday, we will stand together to save the American Dream.

And you can register on MoveOn.org's site.  Come out if you can!

UPDATED WITH PHOTOS!! (Thanks, Dallas!)

    

Here are some of the first images and quotes from today's Voting Rights day in Frankfort.

We had 250-300 people throughout 6 1/2 hours of citizen lobbying and rallying for HB 70, our bill to restore voting rights to most former felons once they have served their debt to society. 

We had some exceptionally good in-person meetings with key senators and a lot of other good outcomes.  

"I think it's a very serious issue.  It deals with the judiciary system.  Some people get caught up in the system. Some folks don't know their rights.  Some folks mistakenly take plea agreements.  They don't know their rights.  This is not rocket science.  It is simple.  Where's the forgiveness at?" - Christopher Price, Lexington, first time lobbyist

"Why are you trying to collect interest on a debt I already paid?" Kristie Kendall, Former Felon, Floyd County.

"People are afraid to speak up.  They're intimidated by legislators.  But we have a right to be here and a right to speak.  They're humans just like us."  - Rosa Jackson, Former Felon, Lexington, first time lobbyist

"I'm here to tell you right now, this is not a black or white issue. It's not a Democrat or Republican issue. It is a human rights issue." - Tayna Fogle, Former Felon, Lexington

"I like being able to be heard.  We work with communities that struggle with this issue.  People turn their lives around and this remains an obstacle.  It needs to change." - Marc Cortino, UofL Kent School, first time lobbyist

Expect a more complete report in the coming days. 

Thanks to everyone who came out to make the day a success!

Last week, the Kentucky Senate passed Senate Bill 151, a bill that would change the Kentucky Public Service Commission (PSC) from a three-member governor-appointed, Senate-approved body as it now exists to a seven-member elected body.

The bill was introduced by Sen. Ray Jones after American Electric Power recently increased its utility rates by 17% with the PSC's approval. Residential electric ratepayers are feeling the pinch of increased rates and the most vulnerable Kentuckians are feeling real hardship; however, this bill does not address the underlying issues that are leading to higher rates and, in fact, would further politicize the process of utility regulation leading to greater influence of the large, wealthy utilities corporations upon PSC decisions.

It is for these reasons that KFTC opposes the bill. Our allies such as the Kentucky Resource Council and MACED, as well as the Kentucky Chamber of Commerce and others, also oppose the bill.

Tom FitzGerald of the Kentucky Resource Council addressed these issues before the Senate Natural Resources and Energy Committee last week:

If there were ever a public policy issue that called out for rigorous scrutiny and deliberation, this is that issue. For we are considering here a dramatic change in the composition of a body that we have charged with assuring that public utilities in our Commonwealth provide light in the darkness, heat in the cold, and energy to power our homes, industry and commerce.

In his research, FitzGerald found that "there is no evidence to suggest that states with elected public utility commissions have lower rates than those with appointed commissions, nor that elected utility commissioners are more responsible to the needs of utility ratepayers." In fact, there is "a real potential for the regulated utilities to focus campaign contributions in a manner that would affect the policies and decisions of an elected commission."

Before being approved and sent to the House this week, the bill went through some last-minute finagling. The Natural Resources and Energy Committee substituted language that would make the bill a "study bill," requiring only that the Legislative Research Commission "study the positive and negative effects of electing members" of the PSC. However, on the Senate floor the full Senate overrode the committee by stripping the substituted language from the bill and returning it to its original form. In their editorial on the issue, the Lexington Herald Leader wrote: "Maybe there is good case for electing the PSC. If so, the Senate didn't take the time to make it."

The Herald Leader further editorialized on the bill:

We're not saying the PSC has been too pure for politics or has no room for reform. There's a revolving door between its staff and utilities. Commissioners owe their jobs to the governor...But it's hard to see any advantages to injecting even more politics...If the idea merits serious consideration, there's plenty of time for study before next year's General Assembly.

In addition to adding more politics into the decisions of the PSC, the bill also does not address the underlying causes of rising utility rates in Kentucky – our vulnerability to rapidly rising costs of coal-burning electricity (on which we are more than 90% dependent) and few policies for diversifying electric generation and promoting energy efficiency programs. Passing the Clean Energy Opportunity Act would be a big first step in addressing these root causes.

Senate Bill 151 in its original form, calling for the election of seven commissioners, has been sent to the House and assigned to the Tourism Development and Energy Committee by House leadership.

______________________________

UPDATE: According to Bluegrass Politics, the Lexington Herald Leader's political blog, Senate Bill 151 was brought before the House Tourism Development and Energy committee today, even though it wasn't on the agenda. The committee debated the bill, but action on it was delayed. You can read their full, but short, report here: http://bluegrasspolitics.bloginky.com/2011/02/24/bill-to-elect-utility-regulators-surfaces-in-house-committee/

Can't make it to the Capitol today for our awesome Voting Rights Rally?  Why don't you join us here for a live stream of the rally?  We have people in Frankfort this morning lobbying our Senators on House Bill 70, our bill that would restore voting rights to former felons who have served their debt to society.  The rally begins at 1 p.m. EST, so check back on this page around then to follow along from the comfort of your own computer.

By George Ella Lyon

Let me see if I've got this right. My legislators are considering a resolution to make Kentucky a sanctuary state for coal companies. Is this possible? House and Senate committees voted to protect the destroyers of our water, our air, the foundations of our houses and health?

My friends, we Kentuckians are in a very sick family. Our government is owned by big corporations and the result is obscene. Sanctuary — sacred protected space — is declared for those who are abusing the basis of our survival. How long do you think we can live without clean water and air?

Does continuous blasting have to crack the foundation of the Capitol to awaken our lawmakers to reality? Does water from their fountains have to run orange, electric green or not at all? Does rock dust have to cover their desks and fill their children's lungs? Must we roll a boulder off a Frankfort hill and crush a sleeping child?

What about blowing up those hills and bringing elk to graze on gravelly grass on compacted soil? Or maybe they'd like a sludge impoundment dam to break above their heads, like one in Martin County in 2000, and send 350 million gallons of toxic waste roaring across their marble floors.

Legislators with vested interests in coal (through family business or coal-funded campaigns) call those working to stop mountaintop removal crazy environmentalists. In classic sick-family pattern, they protect the abusers by demonizing anyone speaking out against the abuse. And Gov. Steve Beshear, joining the coal companies' suit against Environmental Protection Agency enforcement of the Clean Water Act, is barricading the doors of our house to keep out help.

I grew up in Harlan County. I've got coal dust in my bones, and I honor all the miners who put it there. I am not against mining. I am against this version in which human and environmental costs outweigh the benefits for everyone but the coal companies.

It pains me to be portrayed as wanting to put people out of work. No one wants that. Mountaintop removal itself does it, using far fewer miners than underground mining. But when this country's economy is struggling, things are always worse in the mountains, and fear of job loss is very real. Playing on this fear is one of Big Coal's favorite strategies. The abuser always says, "Without me you have nothing. You are nothing."

The question is, if not mountaintop removal, what? Part of the answer is safe responsible mining of remaining underground seams. Too expensive? Cheap coal is a myth. Mountaintop removal is not cheap. It externalizes costs. Nearby residents pay with their health, safety and quality of life to generate corporate profit and lower our electricity bills.

What comes after coal? The powers that be do not want us to ask.

Coal has hemorrhaged from our mountains for over a century, and very little of its wealth has been reinvested in communities which labored and suffered to mine it.

Now is the time to change that. We must stop confusing runaway capitalism with democracy and require big corporations — not just coal companies, not just in Appalachia — to be accountable for their exploitation and invest in people and places who have supported them. We as a nation owe it to Appalachian people to build wind farms, solar and other green energy factories on the 89 percent of mountaintop removal sites that have never been developed.

We must do this for Eastern Kentuckians because it is right, and we must do it for all of us because we cannot live if we destroy our land and water. The future ends when the well runs dry.

Lexington Herald-Leader