Mountain Community Radio, WMMT 88.7, in Whitesburg, KY did fantastic coverage of I Love Mountains Day this year!  Two of the rally speakers, Ada Smith and Cody Montgomery, live in Letcher County.  This piece will be included within the hour-long Inside Appalachia this upcoming week, airing at various times across Central Appalachia.  WMMT airs Inside Appalachia on Sundays at 11 am and Tuesdays at 6 pm.  You can stream WMMT live here.  

Programmer and Letcher Co. member, Sylvia Ryerson (pictured above right and below center), produced and narrated the piece:

"Retired coal miners, college students and citizen activists lined the steps of the capitol in Frankfort, Kentucky on Tuesday for the seventh annual I Love Mountains Day rally, organized by Kentuckians for the Commonwealth.  The record turnout of 1,200 people called upon Governor Beshear, legislators and members of Congress to stop the damage being done to Kentucky’s land and water through mountaintop removal mining and valley fills, and to invest in economic alternatives for mountain communities.

While the event is often tagged by the industry as being “anti-coal,” the first speaker of the day, Ada Smith, of Letcher County, pointed to how safe and responsible coal mining must be a part of Kentucky’s transition towards a clean energy economy, and stressed that those who oppose destructive forms of surface mining, including mountaintop removal, are not seeking an immediate end to all kinds of coal mining. " Hear from more of the event’s speakers and participants in this WMMT report.