Melina Laboucan-Massimo stands in solidarity with our mountain communities. Melina’s indigenous Lubicon Cree community has been devastated by tar sands extraction. In both Canada and the United States, she has been a key leader in the fight against the notorious Keystone XL pipeline. Melina will join us at I Love Mountains Day in Frankfort, where she will speak about the impact of fossil fuels on her community and the need to build a new, clean energy economy.

Melina says, “We have seen the destruction of our lands happen right before our eyes. Our water is being contaminated and we are seeing droughts throughout the region. My family used to be able to drink from our watershed, and now within my lifetime we can no longer do so.”

Get a sneak peek at Melina’s story and her inspiring work by reading this interview. You can also hear her powerful voice against damaging fossil fuel extraction, and learn about her vision for a clean energy economy, in this video clip.  And then join KFTC and Melina on Tuesday, February 14th at 12 p.m on the front steps of the Capitol in Frankfort for I Love Mountains Day! Register here.

Fifteen KFTC members from across Kentucky, from Bowling Green to Whitesburg and Louisa to Louisville, gathered in Lexington to begin providing leadership for KFTC’s New Energy and Transition work, which includes our rural electric co-op reform, sustainable energy policy and organizing and Appalachian Transition campaigns.

KFTC’s Steering Committee decided earlier this year to more closely align these three projects, which have similar goals of promoting energy efficiency and renewable energy, passing clean energy legislation, transitioning away from our dependence on coal, creating new jobs, and saving money for low-income families.

Most of the folks in the room had been involved with one of the three campaigns. Participants got an overview of all three and will have the chance to choose a workteam that focuses on one of the three.

“It was exciting to see these different areas of KFTC work for a better, more sustainable future brought together so that we could learn from each other and understand how so much of our efforts are interrelated,” said Mimi Pickering, a long-time KFTC member from Whitesburg. “I think this is going to be a great way to organize and build momentum for a transition away from coal mining and burning to renewable energy and a just and sustainable economy in eastern Kentucky.”

Members discussed trends, opportunities and challenges to achieving a clean energy vision. Among the trends was the growing acceptance of energy efficiency, even among utilities and politicians who support the coal industry. Renewable energy, on the other hand, won’t gain a foothold unless it’s connected with economic development, members said.

Among the opportunities discussed was the Clean Energy Opportunity Act, which does connect renewable energy with economic development by proposing a Renewable and Efficiency Portfolio Standard (REPS) and a feed-in tariff that would create clean energy jobs and industries by requiring the state to meet benchmarks by a certain time. (Introduced in the Kentucky legislature in 2010 and 2011 by the Kentucky Sustainable Energy Alliance, of which KFTC is a founding member, the bill has not passed but did get a favorable hearing in committee this year and will be re-introduced in 2012 with the hope of getting a vote).

A lack of public understanding of energy issues was listed as a challenge, as were Kentucky’s legislature and congressional delegation, which are reluctant to support anything they perceive might threaten the coal industry. Kentucky is behind surrounding states in passing legislation that encourages clean energy development and the jobs it would bring.

Members worked hard but also had fun getting to know each other and playing a game that focused on the “alphabet soup” of acronyms in the world of energy – such as "EE" for "energy efficiency" and "RE" for "renewable energy."

This past weekend, more than 100 people attended the Growing Appalachia conference at the Jenny Wiley State Park in Prestonsburg. More than a dozen counties were represented among the presenters and attendees, with the majority of folks coming from eastern Kentucky. Growing Appalachia was a full day of workshops and conversations about small-scale farming, sustainable forestry, and clean energy solutions that can benefit the land and people in eastern Kentucky. Workshops ranged from home weatherization, to horse-drawn logging, to growing your own edible mushrooms, to how to get your farm certified organic. 

The workshop was hosted by the Floyd County Chapter of KFTC and many members participated in the planning and staffing of the event. Members were excited that this year's attendance had doubled from the first conference last year.

Throughout the day, several people shared their experience of local success. "Solar works here.  We're living proof of it," Elijah Collett from Leslie County shared during the workshop about solar energy solutions. Leading up to the conference, Elijah and his wife Guylaine were featured in the Lexington Herald Leader. You can read the article on how they power their mobile home in Leslie County with solar energy here.

People had a lot of great ideas about moving this work forward including more workshops and ways to work together to make some of these ideas happen.

Watch a slideshow of the day below:

KFTC Members Beverly May, of Floyd County, and Kat Goodman, of Jefferson County, discussed energy production in Kentucky as a health justice issue at a University of Louisville conference focused on Health Equity this past weekend.

They presented the facts about health impacts of coal at each step in its cycle - mining, processing, transport, burning and waste disposal - and told their own personal stories about paying the true costs of coal every day. They presented data showing that each of these coal cycle steps occurs both in large volumes and in mainly in high poverty counties or neighborhoods in Kentucky.

Beverly May, a native of Eastern Kentucky and a nurse practitioner in the area, presented the health impacts associated with mountaintop removal valley fill practices, coal processing and exposure to the resulting slurry, and transport of coal throughout Kentucky's communities.

Kat Goodman, who grew up in the shadow of the R.D. Green power plant and coal ash dumps outside of Henderson, KY, presented the health impacts associated with coal combustion and exposure to coal ash and discussed her own personal health struggles.

Both presenters linked chronic health problems that have been linked to exposure to pollutants from mining and burning coal, such as cancer, heart disease, asthma and chonic obstructive pulmonary disease, to the future of economic development in Kentucky. Individuals suffering from conditions that require uninterrupted health insurance are not likely or able to leave their jobs to start small businesses. And yet, small business development is exactly what it's going to take to grow Kentucky's economy and, in Eastern Kentucky, transition away from coal.

Kat concluded with the point that these health impacts being thrust onto communities already impoverished is not a coincidence and certainly makes energy production in Kentucky an issue of health justice.

The audience was engaged and attentive. Good outcomes are already clear - KFTC has been invited to do the presentation at the University of Louisville medical school in December and attending students will explore starting a student chapter on campus.

Download Bev and Kat's presentation here. Please contact nancy@kftc.org if you are interested in doing this presentation to an audience or if you have any questions about the citations or information in the presentation.

Yesterday, Saturday, May 15 was a pretty unremarkable day in most respects.  For us, collectively as Kentuckians For The Commonwealth, there wasn't anything singularly huge on the calendar, but we decided to try to compile quick stories about a lot of little things that happened throughout the day and present them as this - A Day in the Life of KFTC. 

At 7 a.m. KFTC members in northern Kentucky came together outside of Ockerman Middle School in Florence to start setting up tables for the big Relay for Life yard sale.  Alex Searles organized the KFTC table, but eight members participated in all, selling items that they donated to the  cause and passing out information about KFTC.  They also invited those interested to the big NKY KFTC Chapter Formation meeting on Tuesday.  By the end of the event at 4 p.m., they brought in $150 and made a lot of key contacts with new people.  Members also left with KFTC Voter Guides to hand out over the next few days.

At 10 a.m. the KFTC booth at the Butchertown Art Fair in Louisville got rolling.  Many of the candidates for mayor were there and most of them dropped by the KFTC table to say hello.  The event was in a neighborhood where KFTC does a lot of work, so many people at the festival  recognized us, and cheered for KFTC.  It gave a lot of our members who don't volunteer with us every month a chance to drop by and plug into our work.  A few people said they'd been meaning to join KFTC and took membership envelopes or joined on the spot.  Others asked about voting locations and we made lists of people to call back on Monday with that information.   Nine hours later, at 7 p.m., we packed up and headed home. 

At 10:30 a.m. a workshop started at the Pine Mountain Sustainability Symposium on "Steps Towards Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy" the workshop was facilitated by KFTC leaders Carl Shoupe and Roy Silver, among others.  This was just one of many events our members participated in throughout the powerful three-day conference designed to bring together specialists, practitioners, educators, and organizers to share their experiences and learn about model projects throughout southeastern Kentucky.  The symposium included hands-on trainings, workshops, woodland hikes, and garden tours with local and regional experts working on food, energy, and forest issues.

At noon, Tyler Birdwhistell and Bethany Baxter met in downtown Georgetown to go door-to-door in the Scroggin Park Housing Authority neighborhood - passing out KFTC Voter Guides and letting people know where their voting location is.   After about two hours, they had covered half of the neighborhood, which was enough for a couple of us to come back the next day and finish it up in an hour and a half. 

"I ran into one woman who is a former felon - so she'd had her right to vote taken away from her when she was much younger.  She told me the she worked for years to get her right to vote back and that she almost gave up a few times.  But she got them back during the Patton administration and has voted ever since." - Tyler Birdwhistell

At 3 p.m. a small group of KFTC folks visited the Peace and Global Citizenship Fair at Bluegrass Community Technical College in Lexington.  It was a great event organized by BCTC’s Students for Peace and Earth Justice.  For our part, we canvassed the crowd with a big stack of KFTC Voter Guides, asking people to cast an informed vote on Tuesday.  Kudos to BCTC’s Students for Peace and Earth Justice for putting together a great event that is getting a bit bigger every year. 

At 4 p.m. the Madison County KFTC members kicked off their Spring Friendraiser, with more than 70 people enjoying a potluck, cornhole and games, a great silent auction, live music by Mudpi, a short program about the awesome work of KFTC, and apparently a game that involved more than a little rolling around in the mud.  Members brought in $700 in donations and had a lot of fun before winds picked up and a hailstorm heralded an early end to the event.  We'll likely have a separate blog entry on this exciting event in the next few days, so stay tuned.  

In addition to all of that, members ran voter mobilization phone banks throughout the day in Bowling Green, Louisville, and in at-large (non-chapter) areas of the state, to name a few places, and members passed out KFTC Voter Guides or handbills about the election at events and in their neighborhoods throughout the commonwealth.  

No doubt, our 6,000+ members across the state accomplished an awful lot in the name of social justice on Saturday that will never make it to this blog - conversations with neighbors, writing letters to elected officials, etc.

It's a lot of little things, but this was just one day.  And day after day in community after community, it adds up.  So keep at it folks. 

What can we do tomorrow?

Last night dozens of KFTC members, joined with our great allies from all over the state, spoke up for clean air and public health at a hearing in Winchester, KY.  The hearing was sponsored by the Kentucky Division of Air Quality and was in regards to an air permit application for a proposed coal-burning power plant in Clark County.  The plant is being proposed to be built by East Kentucky Power Cooperative and would provide power to 16 rural electric co-ops around the state.

"I am a ratepayer/member of Bluegrass Energy, which gets its power from EKPC...As my co-op's power producer, I fear that EKPC is putting me and other members at dire financial risk by pursuing a coal-fired power plant design that is certain to result in higher additional environmental costs versus any other power generation choice it might make," said Madison County KFTC member Steve Wilkins during the public comments section of the hearing.

41 KFTC members and allies spoke out against the dirty air permit application.  Each of the speakers talked about why they believe in clean air, their vision for the future of Kentucky, and the good local jobs that will be possible if EKPC chooses to go down an alternative path of clean, renewable energy.

When asked why she came out, Jefferson County KFTC member Martha Flack said before the hearing, "I think it is really important that we start looking at alternative sources of energy so that we can do a better job protecting the environment and our health... I just dont want to see another coal-fire power plant go up."

Thanks to everyone who traveled far and wide -- especially our great KFTC members in the Eastern part of the sate -- to stand up for clean air, public health, and a better vision for Kentucky!

If you haven't yet sent in comments, there is still time to do so.  Please visit this link to send your comments to the Division of Air Quality.  The more Kentuckians speaking out for a cleaner, better way -- the more powerful we are! 

Here are a few links to some of the news stories about the hearing and our work!

• KY Public News Service
  
• Channel 36
  
• WEKU
  

We will be posting more videos and pictures soon.  Stay tuned!

There's an important story being reported today by the folks at Labor Network for Sustainability.

Three significant unions have taken a position in favor of the science-based reductions in greenhouse gas emissions recommended by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). The unions involved are the Transport Workers Union (TWU),  Service Employees International Union (SEIU) and Laborers International Union of North America (LIUNA).

The full story is packed with insights and well worth reading!

Together these major labor organizations have called for developed countries to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 25-40% from their 1990 levels. This target for addressing the global climate crisis is far stronger than positions advocated by President Obama or Senators John Kerry and Barbara Boxer. It is also a significant departure from positions taken by most other U.S. labor organizations, which have tended to support job creation and green economic development without endorsing specific reductions in greenhouse gas pollution.

According to the joint statement issued by SEIU and LIUNA,

A clear science-based target will drive a massive increase in the generation of green jobs, pubic mass transit, renewable energy, green manufacturing, energy-efficient construction and building retrofits, as well as in other sectors.

The statement from the Transport Workers Union added,

With the US suffering over 10 percent unemployment and falling living standards, we need to fulfill the promise of green jobs sooner, not later.

Both statements called for a "just transition" to the green economy to provide full protections for workers negatively impacted by climate policies, including "workers in energy intensive industries." 

It's encouraging to see that major U.S. labor organizations have taken up the call for a rigorous approach to the climate crisis. Organized labor support helps strengthen the push for sustainable energy policies that can also renew our economy and improve the conditions our homes, businesses and communities.

Click here to watch the animated video, The Story of Cap and Trade.

The Governor's Conference on Energy and the Environment will take place at the Lexington Convention Center on Wednesday, September 30th and Thursday, October 1st.  There is a charge for attending, but scholarships are still available (see the link below). 

According to the information page, this year's agenda will address the following topics:

• How do we achieve energy security in a carbon-constrained world?
• How do we develop our biomass resources?
• What opportunities do we have to increase our renewable energy portfolio?
• How can smart grid technologies help us achieve our energy efficiency objectives?
• How are actions at the federal level going to affect Kentucky's energy landscape?

The agenda includes a session presented by state and federal elected officials about Kentucky's energy landscape and a session that will discuss "new opportunities" in that landscape for our state.  The decisions our state must make around questions of energy and the environment at this critical moment will steer the use of taxpayer money well into the future. 

The questions covered on the agenda point to even bigger questions for KFTC. What do we want Kentucky's energy landscape to look like in the coming years?  What direction will we head as a state in terms of both energy reliance and our economic future?  How can we facilitate a clean, sustainable, just transition in our communities?  This conference is a chance to hear the answers the Governor and policymakers are offering to these important questions and to voice your feedback about those suggestions.

  Click here to link to the state information page about the conference, which includes registration and scholarship information.