Yesterday, two Lynch city buildings got a thorough energy audit to kick-start an energy efficiency project to continue into summer. Conducting the energy audit on the Lynch City Hall and Water Treatment Plant were Josh Bills and Hope Broeker of MACED (Mountain Association for Community Economic Development) with assistance from Gregory Copley from UK's Center for Applied Energy Research.  There to learn and welcome them to the area, were Harlan County KFTC members Stanley Sturgill and Carl Shoupe.  

This week, Letcher County member, Carrie Wells, helped to build our I Love Mountains Day pinwheel collection with her art classes in Knott County.  Students from 1st grade to 12th grade made pinwheels throughout the day, ending with a total of over 200 pinwheels! 

During the day of pinwheel making, a dozen Cordia high school students signed up to travel with "Ms. Wells" and other east Kentucky KFTC members to I Love Mountains Day in Frankfort on February 14th!  The theme of this year's rally is the community health impacts of living near mountaintop removal in Central Appalachia, which has been highlighted dozens of times in the past 2 years in regional, peer-reviewed studies.   Everyone is being asked to bring one pinwheel to the rally to represent 50 people living with cancer that has been linked to the pollution from mountaintop removal mining. A study that came out in July that found that 60,000 people living in Central Appalachia have cancer because of mountaintop removal.  So, 1,200 people expected to attend with pinwheels x 50 = 60,000. You can learn more about this data on our 'Health Impacts Fact Sheet' or by registering for our upcoming Webinar on the health impacts of MTR in preparation for I Love Mountains Day! 

An editorial in today’s Lexington Herald-Leader urges Governor Steve Beshear to consider the homes and health of people in Benham and Lynch before allowing destructive surface mining there.

According to the article, two coal operators and their associates spent more than $500,000 to get Beshear re-elected last fall – the largest private-sector donors to Beshear’s campaign.

One donor, James C. Justice II of A&G Coal, plans to mine near Benham and Lynch, threatening the community’s water supply and quality of life. The Beshear administration has given preliminary approval. From the editorial:

With coal money talking so loudly and directly into his ear, the governor should try extra hard to hear average Kentuckians whose homes, health and future are imperiled by the coal industry’s most destructive practices.

The ridges that cradle Lynch — and are at risk of being destroyed — are part of Black Mountain, Kentucky's highest point, which school children fought to save from strip-mining in the late 1990s.

You can’t put a price tag on the history and possibilities that will be lost if Beshear sacrifices this little corner of Kentucky.

The other donor, James Booth of Cambrian Coal, has a permit to mine in Pike County that a judge attempted to block before Beshear’s Energy and Environment Secretary Len Peters overruled him and allowed the permit to go through.

Cambrian’s plan to chop 400 feet off a mountain near Elkhorn City in Pike County will pollute tributaries of the Russell Fork that were already seriously degraded by earlier mining.

The editorial follows an analysis of campaign contributions in The Courier-Journal by Tom Loftus. To read that article, click here.

To read the full Lexington Herald-Leader editorial, click here.

To learn more about Benham and Lynch residents’ efforts to protect their community, click here.

According to an article by reporter John Cheeves in the 1/29/2012 edition of the Lexington Herald Leader, Senate President David Williams recently suggested that a 78-year old man protesting mountaintop removal mining in Governor Beshear's office should kill himself.

Richard Beliles is a long-time advocate for honest and transparent government in Kentucky and chairman of the Kentucky chapter of Common Cause, a national organization that advocates for fair elections and limits on the role of money in politics. Since early January, he has taken a weekly shift as part of persistent, peaceful vigil against mountaintop removal mining in the state Capitol. In today's article, Beliles described a chilling interaction he had with Senator David Williams while protesting.

"He said, 'Are you occupying the office?' I said yes. He said, 'Well, why don't you set yourself on fire? Why don't you immolate yourself?' And then he left," said Beliles, who is recovering from cancer treatment. "It was a strange thing for David to say. It sort of shook me up."

Williams's spokesperson said the Senator was "clearly joking." But there is nothing humorous about statements like this, especially from a person in public office who holds a position of significant power.

When activists  occupied the Kentucky Capitol for four days last February, they called on  Governor Beshear to "call for an end to extreme and violent speech aimed at citizens who are working to protect Kentucky's land, air and water." To date the governor has made no such declaration. Kentuckians are still waiting. Richard Beliles, and all of us, deserve far better.

Here is a great example of what New Power looks like in Kentucky!

that makes energy efficiency upgrades affordable and doable for customers of rural electric co-ops in eastern Kentucky. The video describes how the Big Sandy Rural Electric Cooperative is helping its customers in Floyd and Johnson counties save money by saving energy.

How$martKY - Energy Efficiency for Everyone from Appalshop CMI on Vimeo.

How$mart is an innovative way to finance energy efficiency upgrades. Designed by the good folks at the Mountain Association for Community Economic Development (MACED), it is a currently in a two-year pilot phase. Participating rural electric cooperatives include Grayson Rural Electric, Big Sandy Rural Electric, Fleming-Mason Electric, and Jackson Energy. 

If you live in a county served by one of these co-ops, give them a call today to ask for your home to be evaluated for energy savings through How$mart!

KFTC members have long urged utilities in Kentucky, especially our rural electric co-ops, to invest more in energy efficiency programs. Our members are helping to spread the word about this promising approach, and continue to nudge and encourage the co-ops to do everything they can to make this program successful in the pilot stage so it can expand in the future.

If you like this video, be sure to check out other similar stories produced by Appalshop and shared on a new website called Making Connections News. There you will find a growing collection of videos and radio stories about efforts to "build a healthy future for Appalachia's land and people."

Today, in celebration of the national holiday honoring Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., KFTC members from Perry and Letcher counties joined hundreds of folks from eastern Kentucky organizations, churches, schools, businesses and communities for the annual MLK Day Community Breakfast hosted by Hazard Community & Technical College.  This year's event, held at HCTC's main campus in Hazard, featured the theme 'Visions of Unity' and keynote speaker Renee Michelle Shaw of KET. 

Building on opening remarks, "Dr. King had more than a dream, he had a vision", Ms. Shaw drew parallels between the vision of King and the visions many communities in eastern Kentucky are working toward, including the eradication of poverty, educational attainment, and "transformative progress."  Shaw made specific note of the disproportion of "young black men in prison garb rather than graduation gowns." 

The event also featured a community service project with information tables from local organizations. The Perry County KFTC Chapter used this space to share upcoming legislative session events and talk with attendees about HB 70 , a Restoration of Voting Rights amendment, and our upcoming Voting Rights Lobby Day on March 8.

Russell Oliver said he was "glad to see KFTC front and center at a different kind of event."  We signed up two new Perry County members, sold two T-shirts, and collected several signatures on the Voting Rights petition, including new Cordia School boy's basketball coach and former UK basketball star, Rodick Rhodes.  Coach Rhodes, along with Perry Chapter member and Cordia director Alice Whitaker brought the Cordia boys basketball team out to the event.

During the ceremony HCTC Director of Cultural Diversity Elbert Hagans read aloud the names of Appalachian African-American teachers from several eastern Kentucky counties while local NAACP president, Ludrenia Hagans-Sheperd lit candles in their honor.  He later thanked the local organizations who participated in the community service project by reading each name aloud (including Perry County KFTC), while Letcher County Steering Committee Rep., Elizabeth Sanders volunteered with WMMT equipment to capture audio from the event. 

Shortly after, local KFTC member and HCTC professor, Jenny Williams presented this year's MLK March banner created by youth attendees of the ceremony.  After the breakfast and keynote event, this banner and youth from the event lead a musical and lively march into downtown Hazard to Consolidated Baptist Church for more speakers, a gospel choir performance and luncheon, all hosted by the church. 

Despite a growing body of evidence that links coal mining – and particularly mountaintop removal – with lower life expectancy, higher rates of cancer and other life-threatening diseases and increased birth defects, coal companies and their supporters – from Gov. Beshear to local legislators and our Congressional delegation – continue to be silent and even work to suppress this research.

The same thing happens in other coal-impacted communities across the region. Alpha Natural Resources, facing a legal challenge to one of its new mining permits in West Virginia, is trying to keep important health impacts studies out of the courtroom.

The Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition has asked a judge to include West Virginia University studies linking mountaintop removal to birth defects and cancer among residents in its lawsuit challenging the permit for a 235-acre mine proposed by an Alpha subsidiary.

But Alpha lawyers argue the studies should not be considered. From The Charleston Gazette:

Alpha lawyer Bob McLusky argues in a court filing that the environmental groups waited too long to raise the studies, that the health impacts cited have nothing to do with the water pollution permit at issue in the case, and that general health studies shouldn't be used in a case over a specific mining permit.

To read the full story, click here.

Dr. Michael Hendryx, a co-author of the three studies in question, testified before a legislative committee on the health impacts of mining during the 2010 Kentucky General Assembly. To read that story, click here.

To learn more and take action:

• Join KFTC for a webinar on the health impacts of mining at 7 p.m. February 6. For details, click here.
• Come to I Love Mountains Day on February 14 in Frankfort. To register, click here.
• Write letters to the editor of your local or state newspaper and say you care about the impacts of mining on human health. For tips on writing letters, click here.

Yesterday, about 20 folks from LaGrange to Hazard came to a lobby training sponsored by KFTC at the Capitol, then headed out to kick off another year of lobbying, or as Erika Skaggs from our Central Kentucky chapter put it, "one of the things that KFTC members do best."

Members were able to catch legislators in the halls coming back out of session for some lobbying, rounding up cosponsors for our bills in support of voting rights, clean energy, and tax reform. Then, after some pizza fortification, a crew of East Kentucky members stayed for the State of the Commonwealth Address.

Members shared reflections on the address on the way home. What did you think?

• Members were excited that the governor is committing to tax reforms that are fair, and that grow along with the economy, although we also recognize that these can be slippery words. KFTC supports tax reforms that are fair, meaning that the responsibility of paying taxes is shared equitably, and low- and middle- income Kentuckians shouldn't be asked to pay a larger share than the wealthiest citizens of the state; adequate to our state's needs and priorities; and sustainable (or elastic, able to adapt to the shifting economy).  Clearly, Governor Beshear is sharing our language about needing a tax structure that is "fair," and these words can be fuzzy but it seems like he's  advocating sustainability, too. That's a start!
  
• The governor, one carload reflected on the way home, would do well to think and talk more about root causes to Kentucky's challenges, and to think more deeply about a vision that addresses those root causes.  Prescription drug prevention programs are very important, but they fall short of addressing a vision for what's really needed to build a more diverse and dynamic economy in Kentucky. We need to invest in a vision: vibrant communities, access to quality education, and a commitment to the growing clean energy economy.
  

 Enjoy a couple of photos from the training and the evening:

Members from Letcher and Knott counties joined the Perry County chapter members Tuesday night in Hazard at the Perry County Public Library for a Holiday feast and screening of I Was There in the Library's theater.  Around 25 people brought family, friends, and food to celebrate the upcoming holidays, another powerful year of grassroots organizing in east Kentucky, and the 79th birthday of the 2011 KFTC Lifetime Achievement Award recipient, McKinley Sumner of Montgomery Creek, Vicco.  

During the party, the Perry Chapter sold two 30th anniversary DVDs, two green KFTC t-shirts, and 5 members renewed their dues to support our final fall fundraising push!  After folks filled their bellies with the spread of fried chicken, sides, and desserts, we filed into the Library theater for a group viewing of  I Was There: The First 30 Years of Kentuckians For The Commonwealth.  For many, this was their first viewing of the film, complete with stove-top popcorn!  

With a group from three counties, ages 4 to 79, and from varying walks of life, this was a great finale to the Perry chapter's work this year, our 30th anniversary of action for justice.  See if you can spot any familiar faces below and see even more pictures on our flickr, here. 

On Monday, folks from 24 grassroots organizations in Appalachia, including KFTC, met in Prestonsburg to provide some guidance to the Alliance for Appalachia on ways to advance a just and sustainable economic transition in Appalachia.

The goals of this Economic Summit were:
•    to learn about each other’s work and share strategies
•    to explore what is needed in the region to advance transition
•    to explore what role the Alliance for Appalachia could play in supporting economic transition work

After a day-long discussion, the group came up with recommendations related to continued research, raising grassroots funds, messaging and organizing.

The Alliance steering committee is considering the suggestions as it meets for its quarterly meeting, Tuesday through Thursday of this week. In the coming year, the Alliance plans advance its work promoting a transition to a just and sustainable economy for Appalachia, including looking for opportunities for collaboration with grassroots organizations throughout the region.

Report by Mary Love