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.  

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.

 Last week, Harlan County Chapter Steering Committee Rep. and New Power leader, Carl Shoupe, invited the chapter and greater Tri-Cities community into his Benham home for a showing of "I Was There: The First 30 Years of Kentuckians for the Commonwealth". 

Friends and neighbors from Benham, Lynch, and Cumberland gathered for good food, fellowship and the film screening.  The event raised $60, including donations from friends who could not attend, but sent in their support by mail ahead of time.  

During the film showing, 8 year-old Chase Gladson, of Cumberland, said in response to footage of youth meeting with the Governor's staff, "They let kids do it too?".  Sounds like Chase might have a lobby trip in his future. 

Last night Harlan chapter members geared up for KFTC's statewide fall fundraising campaign and election day voter turnout, and submitted their photos and stories to the Kentucky Deserves Better Tumblr site. Together, the chapter went through a list of all local members and prospects and identified targets for fall fundraising!

Folks identified a good chunk of people to ask to become sustaining givers or new members, to renew their memberships, or to make special contributions this fall. Chapter Chair Roy Silver wrote a letter to a past members inviting them to once again support KFTC's work. Everyone took a stack of voter guides and made plans to distribute them across the Tri-Cities this weekend.

Then, after a report on the Kentucky Deserves Better campaign from Stanley Sturgill, chapter members wrote down their stories and posted pictures of themselves holding their stories and messages to U.S. Rep. Hal Rogers! Check them out HERE and "Add Your Voice" while you're there!

In a powerful op-ed published this morning in the Lexington Herald-Leader, KFTC member Stanley Sturgill exposes Gov. Steve Beshear's misplaced allegiance to King Coal at the expense of clean water, jobs and the truth.

"If surface mining were stopped, it might be the most "reasonable and pragmatic approach" to working with the EPA. Putting our unemployed miners back to work should bring sincere joy to everyone ..." Stanley wrote.

"The people of our area have had enough, and the so-called "War on Coal" is only propaganda. King Coal's not under attack. It's the good folks who are trying to survive in the surface-mining areas who are being attacked."

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Late last week, KFTC members and staff from Eastern KY chapters came together in the new Whitesburg KFTC office to hone our Voter Empowerment skills. 

We covered everything from analyzing the political landscape, learning about KFTC's long-term approach to Voter Empowerment, learning how to register voters, to planning outreach events over the next two months.

We prepared for outreach tabling at the Black Gold Fest (Sept 16th), Mountain Heritage Festival (Sept 23rd-25th) and the Apple Festival (Sept 30th-Oct 1st).   

This week we've been reporting to you on the Environmental Justice Listening Tour that KFTC members hosted for the Environmental Protection Agency. You've read the comments of members in Clay County, at the Cordia School, in Whitesburg, and in Harlan County here; and you've witnessed regular Kentuckians speaking directly to the EPA here and here.

Today we bring you one more inspiring voice from eastern Kentucky and a report on the false controversy that paid coal industry spokespeople and coal politicians have tried to cook up.

Ada Smith is a KFTC member from Letcher County. She spoke to EPA administrators during the community meeting held at the Appalshop theater in Whitesburg last Thursday. First Ada shared her concerns that that those living near mountaintop removal coal mines "can't turn their faucet on and get a drink of water, that they can't take a bath without being scared that there's arsenic in their water...There's been stories all this week of people's well water being on fire under the ground." Then, as if sensing the political backlash that had just taken place early in the day in Frankfort, Ada told the EPA: "My state is not going to respond to the concerns I have around coal mining." She said, "What I know is that...our state people are not going to do the job, but [the EPA] can."

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Earlier that day, in an Interim Subcommittee on Energy of the General Assembly meeting at the Capitol in Frankfort, politicians railed against the EPA's visit and the fact that the Agency had the opportunity to hear regular Kentuckians voice their hopes and concerns without being drowned out by the noise of coal industry. Media outlets who reported on the EPA's listening tour, and on the comments of residents, also picked up the story of the false controversy created by industry spokespeople and legislators--often without a response from KFTC or local residents.

Read some of the comments by the politicians that put the interests of the coal industry and elected officals before those of the regular Kentuckians dealing everyday with the impacts of the industry at the bottom of this blog post. Those politicians who blasted the EPA, who discounted the voices of the Kentuckians addressing the EPA during the tour, and who spoke up to protect the industry include: Rep. Leslie Combs, Rep. Tim Crouch, Rep. Myron Dossett, Rep. Rocky Adkins, Rep. Lonnie Napier, Rep. Fitz Steele, Sen. Robert Stivers, and U.S. Congressman Hal Rogers, among others.

KFTC couldn't let such irresponsible comments go unacknowledged or unchallenged and promptly issued a statement, highlighting the importance of the listening tour and the opportunity that Kentuckians had to speak directly to the agency charged with protecting them, as well as calling out the politicians for their silence when the deadly impacts of the industry are made known. WYMT printed this statement in full.

On Thursday and Friday of this past week, more than 150 eastern Kentucky residents participated in a tour with leaders of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. At stops in Manchester, Vicco, Whitesburg and Lynch, the residents over and over asked the federal officials to enforce the law and help us create safe and healthy communities. Concerned mothers, teachers, students, retired coal miners, nurses, entrepreneurs, the unemployed and many others spoke directly to the EPA officials.

• We expressed our vision for a prosperous eastern Kentucky and shared our hope that by working together we could create economic opportunities so that our children won’t have to leave the region to find meaningful work.

• We expressed hope that those jobs would not put workers in danger, and would not do damage to our land and water.

• We asked for assurances that our drinking water not make us sick, and that those companies that are poisoning our water be stopped and held accountable.

• The mayor and residents of one small town asked that mining not be allowed to destroy the town’s drinking water source and future economic potential.

• One family asked that someone stop the dust and water pollution from a coal processing plant that a doctor told them is making their daughter sick.

• And we let it be known that one of the biggest obstacles to safe workplaces and healthy communities is systematic non-enforcement of the laws designed to protect our health and safety and inaction by the state and federal agencies.

As Kentuckians and members of KFTC, we thank and commend the EPA officials for coming to listen to the people most impacted by the decisions that they make regarding the issuing of permits and enforcing the law.

As if on cue, by Friday afternoon, the airwaves and the internet were filled with howls of protest from paid coal industry spokespeople (who had turned down a meeting with the EPA officials) and state and federal politicians, complaining that ordinary Kentuckians had the chance to have their concerns heard by the EPA. They claimed the EPA had no right to come to Kentucky to see and hear for themselves the dangerous and deadly impacts of the modern coal industry. They expressed outrage that EPA got an opportunity to hear, and the chance to value, the opinions and concerns of the people who bear the consequences of an industry that has no respect for the law – a reality these politicians won’t acknowledge.

But not one of these politicians expressed any concern about the families who are without safe drinking water; about the children who are sick because of the pollution in their neighborhood; about the damage to the homes and drinking water wells of families who live near mining operations, or our youth who must leave the region to find meaningful jobs while they do little to help create new job opportunities.

While these officials were howling against the one federal agency that has shown some inclination to enforce the law, their past silence is also of note:

When a study was released recently showing that people who live near mountaintop removal mines have an increased risk of cancer, we didn’t hear one word of concern for the people who are sick, only attacks on the scientists.

When a study was released recently documenting that children born in communities near mountaintop removal mines have a 26% higher incidence of birth defects, we heard not one word of concern or compassion from these same political leaders.

When it was demonstrated that specific coal companies had been filing fraudulent water monitoring reports and poisoning streams below their mine sites (violations the companies have acknowledged), we heard not one word of disappointment from these same politicians.

But when a federal agency – charged by Congress with enforcing the laws that protect our health, our water, our air and land – comes to talk with real people affected by these issues, Kentucky’s political leaders are beside themselves with fury over the very notion that an enforcement agency might actually make coal companies obey the law.

Have these politicians no shame, whatsoever?

In Kentucky, we still have a chance to help lead the nation toward a new power, clean energy economy with more and better jobs, healthier communities, and more affordable energy. But we have to stop the destruction being caused today by our old power coal industry and old power ways of thinking. And that requires leaders with vision, compassion, and political courage. The ones squawking about the EPA doing its job have shown, again, that they are not these leaders.

If your state legislator or Congressperson is one of the politicians listed below, please consider writing a letter directly to him or her. Also, send a letter to the editor of your local paper, especially if they've run a story about the EPA visit or the false controversy. You're encouraged to use points in KFTC's statement above, putting the voices of regular Kentuckians before the coal industry and its politicians.

There are tips on writing a letter to the editor here.

And you can locate your legislator here.

Let us know if you send in a letter by calling your local KFTC organizer or emailing info@kftc.org.

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Here are some of the comments by legislators and industry spokespeople, with a link to the news source for each comment:

• Rep. Rocky Adkins: “My problem with the federal EPA is that I think they have an agenda and I think they are tied to groups that have an agenda and I think that is flat wrong for a federal agency to have a drawn opinion without hearing a cross-section of views and opinions come from everyone.”
• Rep. Lonnie Napier: "I just want my fellow legislators from Eastern Kentucky and those in the coal industry to know that many of us have and will continue to support any efforts to protect our coal industry."
• Rep. Myron Dossett: "I pledge to...stand with my fellow legislators in Eastern Kentucky to fight any Federal restrictions on the coal industry."
• Rep. Fitz Steele: "[A] federal agency coming to our communities to conduct the people’s business in private? That does (not) pass the smell test.”
• Rep. Leslie Combs: "I continue to be disappointed by the EPA and their actions toward Kentucky’s coal industry...[T]o stage meetings and site visits with people sympathetic to only one side of this issue is mind boggling to me. It’s bad enough that the elected officials weren’t invited – to snub our people is just terrible. I do feel that in my position I have worked cooperatively to engage the coal industry with other businesses and industry across the state to meet common ground. This stunt of the EPA is a slap in the face to me, my constituents and all of Kentucky.”
• Sen. Robert Stivers: "I was shocked to have to read in the paper that the EPA was visiting my hometown. If they truly wanted to hear the impact that mining has produced, they could have, as a courtesy, invited legislators and other elected officials.

Twenty-five residents and supporters of Benham and Lynch spoke out at a permit conference with the Division of Mine Permits (including Director Allen Luttrell) regarding another proposed mine that could threaten their community.  The proposal is for a 30-acre deep mine in Lynch that includes a conveyor belt across the road, coal truck traffic on the old railroad bed near the raw water source for the community, and several sediment ponds.  

Numerous people spoke out including Lynch Mayor Taylor Hall and Lynch Councilman Stanley Sturgill.  Others present included several women from the Kentucky Heritage Council and friends from SW Virginia with the Southern Appalachian Mountain Stewards (SAMS).

"As mayor I can't allow my sewer plant to discharge anything into the creek, so how do we make sure that doesn't happen by the coal company?"  Mayor Hall (pictured standing above) asked.

"I was a police officer for the city for 21 years and transported prisoners across Pine Mountain for 20 years.  The beltline across Hwy 119 often caused windshields on our cruisers to get cracked, and the coal dust was often a problem.  What will you do to make sure that there is a more rapid response than the 20 years it took to get that problem fixed?" he also asked. 

The director granted a 30-day extension to the comment period, answered a number of questions residents had, and agreed to come down for another meeting with residents prior to a decision about the pending permit.

On August 18 and 19, Kentuckians had the opportunity to speak directly to key officials of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) about their vision for Kentucky and, especially, about their concerns related to the devastating effects of mountaintop removal mining and valley fills. KFTC hosted Lisa Garcia from the Washington, D.C. office, who is a special advisor to EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson on Environmental Justice, and Gwendolyn Keyes Fleming, administrator for EPA's Region 4, as well as seven other EPA directors and staff members.

EPA Region 4 Administrator Gwendolyn Keyes Fleming (left) listens to the concerns
of Anne Carr (far right) and other residents in Lynch.

The tour brought the EPA in contact with more than 150 Kentuckians, many of whom were able to share their stories and concerns. At stops in Manchester, Vicco, Whitesburg and Lynch, the residents over and over asked the federal officials to enforce the law and help create safe and healthy communities. Concerned mothers, teachers, students, retired coal miners, nurses, entrepreneurs, the unemployed and many others spoke directly to the EPA officials.

• We expressed our vision for a prosperous eastern Kentucky and shared our hope that by working together we could create economic opportunities so that our children won’t have to leave the region to find meaningful work.
• We expressed hope that those jobs would not put workers in danger, and would not do damage to our land and water.
• We asked for assurances that our drinking water not make us sick, and that those companies that are poisoning our water be stopped and held accountable.
• The mayor and residents of Lynch asked that mining not be allowed to destroy the town’s drinking water source and future economic potential.
• One family in Clay County asked that someone stop the dust and water pollution from a coal processing plant that a doctor told them is making their daughter sick.
• And we let it be known that one of the biggest obstacles to safe workplaces and healthy communities is systematic non-enforcement of the laws designed to protect our health and safety and inaction by the state and federal agencies.
  

As Kentuckians and members of KFTC, speakers also thanked and commended the EPA officials for coming to listen to the people most impacted by the decisions that they make regarding the issuing of permits and enforcing the law.

In Clay County, Anne Shelby described her community's efforts to protect their land and water through a Lands Unsuitable for Mining petition, which the state ignored and, as she says, often ridiculed. Listen to her passionate statement here (and check back on this blog throughout the week for more inspiring Kentucky voices speaking directly to the EPA):

After leaving Clay County, the caravan of Kentuckians and EPA officials headed to Knott County to hear from more community members.

 

The Hazard Herald printed a detailed article on this next stop on the EPA's visit, to the Cordia School in Knott County:

Ivy Brashear, [pictured above right] a Viper resident and graduate student at the University of Kentucky, thanked the EPA for changes that have been made to coal mining regulations recently. She said she believes that EPA officials have gone to bat for the environment[...]

“Thirty years is all we have left of the coal, 30 years and then they are gone,” she said. “They are going to leave here and we are going to be here with dirty water and dirty air and cancer clusters and birth defects.”

And to round out the first day, the EPA officials heard from a long list of folks from throughout eastern Kentucky. The Appalshop theater in Whitesburg was packed as KFTC members spoke about their concerns, including a barrage of recent studies that show the harmful impacts of strip mining and valley fills. Reporter Erica Peterson with WFPL-FM in Louisville followed along on the whole trip and had this to report on the Whitesburg stop:

Later that night, people packed into a theater in Whitesburg and testified about water pollution, the perils of an economy that’s too dependent on coal and the industry’s political influence.

“I want to talk for a moment about another insidious form of coal pollution," said former Kentuckians for the Commonwealth chair Doug Doerrfeld

“It is hard to overstate the degree to which the influence of coal has also polluted our democracy,” he said. “While coal mining provides just 1 percent of all jobs in the state and the industry contributes 2.5 percent of Kentucky’s economic output, the power of the industry’s money in our political system is overwhelming.”

The next day, the EPA wrapped up their trip in Lynch, in Harlan County. The Harlan Daily Enterprise reported on the story there:

“We have a beautiful area. Right now, it is virgin territory as far as surface mining goes, and we like to keep it that way,” said Stanley Sturgill, member of Lynch City Council and Kentuckians for the Commonwealth.

...

A statement by former council member Carl Shoupe captured what seemed to be the sentiment of many of those gathered.

“We’re not against coal, but we are asking the EPA to listen to us and help us preserve and save what we cherish. EPA is our last bastion,” said Shoupe.

Media coverage of the tour was extensive and came from a variety of sources. The local news station, WYMT, broadcast two reports on the tour, one on the community testimony in Whitesburg and one on the stop in Lynch.

Throughout the trip, Keyes Fleming and Garcia stated that environmental justice is important to the administration and that low-income and minority voices need to be heard in the decisions that affect them most, particularly as they relate to pollution. Keyes Fleming said the residents who spoke to them throughout the trip were heard "loud and clear."

By Friday, the internet and airwaves were full of complaints from the coal industry about the visit. In their wrap-up, WFPL reported on the controversy:

[Charles Baird of the Coal Operators and Associates] criticized the lack of advance notice to members of the media other than WFPL. But there were local media outlets at each event.

And two employees from the state Division of Water were present. Also, Bill Bissett of the Kentucky Coal Association confirmed that he was notified of the tour, and the EPA offered to meet with coal supporters for an hour on Friday.

But many members of the mining industry were at a conference in Lexington.

Soon, we will report more on the backlash from the coal industry and the coal politicians--and KFTC's response to their irresponsible statements.

Perry County resident Pam Maggard told EPA officials that if coal mining continues in Eastern Kentucky, there needs to be a bigger emphasis on safety and environmental issues.

“If they are going to mine then they need to do it with regards to miners’ safety and community health and safety,” said Maggard. “We need clean air; you can see how dusty it is here. We need homes left on their foundations. We need clean water. We can find another electricity source, we can’t find water.”
...
Tiffany Stiles, a 2011 graduate of Cordia, is currently a radiology student at Hazard Community and Technical College. She and her fiancé and hoping to build a home, but she fears the land they have may end up being negatively affected by coal mining.

“I don’t want to have to move away to build a life,” said Stiles.

The STAY Project (Stay Together Appalachian Youth) is a diverse regional network of young people throughout Central Appalachia who are working together to advocate for and actively participate in their home mountain communities.

This project began in 2007 at an Appalachian Studies conference, when youth participants expressed that they didn’t know how to participate in movements for social change, that there were few access points for them as young people, and few opportunities to develop the skills and knowledge that would allow them to contribute to social change efforts. These young participants created the STAY Project.  

Now, almost five years later, its network of members and regional gatherings create avenues for young people to educate themselves, find voice, and nurture political power, in their own communities of West Virginia, southwest Virginia, eastern Kentucky, eastern Tennessee, and western North Carolina.  The STAY Project is currently a consortium supported by Appalshop’s Appalachian Media Institute in Whitesburg, KY, High Rocks in Hillsboro, WV, and the Highlander Research and Education Center in New Market, TN.

This August 9-12, the STAY Project will host the STAY Summer Institute at the Pine Mountain Settlement School in Harlan County.  

Committed to having all voices and identities supported within Appalachia, and understanding that youth are often left out of spaces of decision-making, the STAY Summer Institute will bring together youth from throughout the region for a four-day workshop.  The gathering will serve to empower young people through a sense of place, promote leadership development, uphold Appalachian identity through cultural arts and storytelling, and build personal relationships to sustain each other through our efforts.  The leadership trainings will focus on organizing, popular education, grant writing, small-business skills, financial/budget management, anti oppression workshops, etc. The cost for this workshop is between $50-$150 (sliding scale) and includes room and board.