UPDATE 5 p.m. – Both measures receive committee approval today.

Several bills or resolutions proposed by legislators attempt to shield or completely exempt coal companies from accountability and responsibility for obeying the law. Two of those may get committee hearings today.

Senate Joint Resolution 99 specifically “declares the Commonwealth of Kentucky a sanctuary state from the overreaching regulatory power of the United States EPA.”

The resolution is sponsored by Sen. Brandon Smith of Hazard and is on the agenda for the Senate Natural Resources & Energy Committee Thursday at 11 a.m. in Room 169.

Truman Hurt

SJR 99 singles out a proposed EPA guidance on conductivity issued last April. That guidance is the focus of a lawsuit brought by Gov. Steve Beshear and the coal industry against the EPA. The Kentuckians who camped outside the governor’s office this weekend asked Beshear on Friday if he would drop the state’s participation in that lawsuit. He refused and that’s one of the reason they decided not to leave his office.

"The people and communities of Eastern Kentucky have suffered unnecessarily for years because the state environmental and mine safety agencies have failed to fully and fairly enforce the law," KFTC member Truman Hurt wrote in a letter the Sen. Smith. "Now that the EPA is finally stepping up to enforce the law and protect our precious water, you and the Governor are making every effort to block that enforcement. You seem willing to sacrifice the health and safety of your own constituents and the future of Eastern Kentucky in order to protect the rights of the coal companies to flatten the mountains and fill the valleys with their mine waste."

"Brandon Smith should be working on things to help people in Appalachia, not hurt us," said Rick Handshoe, one of the 14 who spent the weekend in the capitol. "Brandon ought to be ashamed of himself for hurting the people he is supposed to be representing.

In the House, Rep. Jim Gooch is behind similar efforts. House Bill 421 would exempt coal companies from the Clean Water Act if the coal is used inside Kentucky and does not cross state lines. HB 421 is set to be considered by the House Natural Resources and Environment Committee today at 8:30 a.m. in Annex Room 129.

"This shows who or what these legislators really care about. They don¹t want reasonable and balanced safeguards for the public, they want no safeguards at all," pointed out Teri Blanton, who also camped out in the capitol. "Nothing less than turning the coal industry completely loose on the people, the water and the land will seem to satisfy them."