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! 

This year at I Love Mountains day we are using homemade pinwheels to share our message of calling for an end to mountaintop removal and transitioning to a clean energy economy.  We are asking everyone coming to I Love Mountains day to bring one pinwheel. 

Then we will deliver each of our pinwheels to Governor Beshear at I Love Mountains.  With 1,2000 of us estimated to attend, each pinwheel will represent 50 people living with cancer that has been linked to the pollution from mountaintop removal mining.   Click here to learn about the 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 pinwheels x 50 = 60,000. 

But the pinwheels are also a beautiful way to visually demonstrate the hope that we all have for transitioning to a new, clean energy economy that can bring good jobs and cleaner air and water to our state!  What better way to share our message and help the Governor understand what is at stake! 

Will you join us by making and bringing a homemade pinwheel with you at I Love Mountains day?  We hope you will!  Here is a link to some super simple instructions!  And if you do, leave us a comment here to let us know how it goes!  But also don't worry if you can't make a pinwheel, we will have a few extras to share that 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.

 KFTC’s annual “I Love Mountains” day at the state capitol is just around the corner.  This big event, which attracts more than 1,000 Kentuckians each year, calls attention to the scale of destruction created by mountain-top removal coal mining in Kentucky and the need for a clean water and energy future.

 The day includes a special emphasis and participation from young Kentuckians – with a special youth-led lobby team!

KFTC youth are going to spend the morning of I Love Mountains day try to have lobby meetings with top state lawmakers.  Would you like to be part of this youth-led lobby team or do you know a young person within the ages of 5 and 25 who would be? 

What it involves:  Each youth would be responsible for attending a planning meeting over the phone (conference call) with other KFTC youth leaders and then meeting in the Capitol the morning of I Love Mountains day at 9:30 a.m. to begin our round of lobbying meetings.

How to get involved:  If this sounds like you, please call or email KFTC staffperson Carissa Lenfert at 859-893-1147 or carissa@kftc.org to sign-up.  Youth interested must sign-up by January 31^st. 

Spread the word:  Also, please pass this announcement along to anyone you may know who would be a great addition to the youth team!

Help make history and protect our land, water, and people!

Also – don’t forget to register for “I Love Mountains” day!

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.

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.

by Rachel Harrod

Inspired by last February’s weekend occupation of the governor’s office by 14 Kentuckians determined to hold the Beshear administration accountable for its complicity with the coal industry, long-time KFTC member and Kentucky Heartwood founding member Chris Schimmoeller wanted to do something to keep the pressure on the governor.

She began talking to friends about a weekly protest outside the governor’s office. A number of Chris’s friends enthusiastically embraced the idea, and on Earth Day 2011 they kicked off the Sit-In for the Mountains.

Since then, protestors have visited the Capitol one day a week to sit in or just outside the governor’s office with signs urging Gov. Beshear to protect the mountains, streams and communities by ending mountaintop removal mining. More than a hundred people have participated, including coalfield residents, former miners, Kentuckians with strong ties to Appalachia, and others concerned about air and water quality.

While most have sat quietly with their signs, engaging passersby in conversation when possible, some have serenaded the governor’s staff with mournful coal songs or lain corpse-like beneath fake tombstones to symbolize the death and destruction caused by mountaintop removal mining. Other protestors have shared school projects about mercury pollution, made sculptures, conducted a survey, or dressed up like Santa to deliver lumps of coal to Gov. Beshear and legislators on the “naughty” list for their unquestioning support of destructive mining practices.

Jeri Howell of the Frankfort High School Earth Club, who carried her message to the governor through song, explained why she got involved with the sit-in: “My friend in Hindman can't drink the water. He says it upsets his stomach, gets him sick. My friend in Whitesburg can't seem to quit writing songs about the hardships of a coal miner and the devastating impacts it has on families … Call me crazy, blame me for wanting to ruin Kentucky's economy, bash me for being a ‘dirty tree hugger,’ but I won't stand for the governor and legislature of Kentucky supporting this Hell we are creating in Appalachia.”

Caroline Taylor-Webb, a state government retiree who now devotes most of her time to civic pursuits, fell in love with the mountains at age 11 while spending a summer with her father in the Red River Gorge. “From then on, I considered myself an environmentalist,” she said. In 1988 and ’89, she teamed up with friend Dr. Louise Chawla to conduct an oral history project on Kentucky conservationists.

The project took them through Appalachia, where they interviewed, among others, author Harry Caudill and Mary Rogers of Pine Mountain Settlement School. While working for the Department of Natural Resources, she got to visit some “reclaimed” strip mine sites, but they were “a joke,” she said. Strip mining was bad enough, but with the expansion of mountaintop removal, surface mining became even more destructive. Caroline knew she had to do something. She now coordinates scheduling all of the shifts for the sit-in and is excited about maintaining an increased presence at the Capitol through the legislative session.

KFTC and several of our allies are challenging an agreement the Beshear administration negotiated in secret with Nally & Hamilton coal company to resolve thousands of violations of the Clean Water Act.

“There are so many loopholes in this secretly crafted document, it becomes strikingly offensive to anyone the least bit familiar with Clean Water Act rules” said KFTC member Suzanne Tallichet. “This Agreed Order represents business as usual between cabinet officials and a scofflaw coal company, literally at the expense of citizens’ lives and well-being,"

The case involves incomplete and false water pollution reports Nally & Hamilton filed with the Kentucky Energy and Environment Cabinet over a two-and-a-half-year period. These reports were literally collecting dust in state offices before they were exposed by Appalachian Voices. In March, KFTC, Appalachian Voices, Kentucky Riverkeeper and the Waterkeeper Alliance informed Nally & Hamilton of their intent to sue in order to stop the violations and the related pollution of waterways in eastern Kentucky.

Cabinet officials, who had previously ignored these reports, in May filed an administrative enforcement action against the company, alleging 4,600 violations rather than the 12,000 originally cited. It seems that the cabinet did this in an effort to protect the company by trying to pre-empt a federal lawsuit the groups planned to file. The administrative action had no preemptive effect under the law, however, and the groups filed the federal suit anyway.

We also asked to intervene in the cabinet's administrative proceeding, and in July the hearing officer granted the groups intervenor status, as full parties in the case. However, cabinet officials ignored the hearing officer's strong encouragement to include intervenors in settlement negotiations and negotiated a settlement with Nally & Hamilton without notifying or involving the intervening parties.

"They ignored the hearing officer’s order giving us intervenor status and negotiated a secret agreement that does little to protect our people or prevent future violations,” said Pat Banks of Kentucky Riverkeeper in a press release issued by the groups. “Our people are shocked that the cabinet chooses to protect companies that are polluting our land and water and breaking the laws thousands of times rather than protect the health and well-being of Kentucky’s land and people.“

The petition filed Thursday in Franklin Circuit Court asks that the agreement between Nally & Hamilton Enterprises and the Kentucky Energy and Environment Cabinet be vacated on the grounds that there is “no factual evidence in the record, much less substantial evidence, [that] supports a finding that the Agreed Order is a fair resolution of Nally’s thousands of [Clean Water Act] violations, or that it will be an effective deterrent of future violations.”

Nally & Hamilton Enterprises, based in Bardstown, is one of the largest producers of strip mined coal in Kentucky. Several principal officers and employees of Nally & Hamilton and their spouses contributed $6,000 to Beshear’s re-election campaign on July 21, just two weeks after the citizens groups were allowed to intervene in the case, according to the Kentucky Registry of Election Finance.

"Citizens living in coal-impacted communities deserve much better from a taxpayer supported state agency that is supposed to be diligently protecting people over corporate profits,”said Tallichet.

MEDIA COVERAGE

• Ronnie Ellis: Environmental coalition wants agreement vacated
• Lexington Herald-Leader: Environmentalists contest coal company settlement
• Erica Peterson, WFPL-FM: Environmental Groups Petition to Overturn “Inadequate” Coal Settlement
  

As was widely reported in the media yesterday, Energy and Environment Cabinet Secretary Len Peters, with the blessing of Gov. Steve Beshear, fired cabinet employee Carl Campbell, without explanation. Campbell was a 25-year cabinet employee, most recently serving as commissioner of the Department for Natural Resources within the cabinet, with responsibilities for surface mine reclamation and mine safety programs.

KFTC members knew Campbell pretty well, in part because of his long service in the cabinet mostly dealing with coal mining. But also because he met regularly with KFTC members, both in Frankfort and in the coalfields where residents deal daily with the consequences of coal mining. The next meeting was scheduled in two weeks, in Hazard.

Sometimes KFTC members butted heads with Campbell, but also found him to be one of more honorable and accountable persons in the cabinet. We had a good working relationship with him. He took the time to get to know our members, and he produced answers to their questions and results when he could.

Campbell's performance raises questions about why he was the one dismissed and not others within the cabinet. Bruce Scott is the commissioner of the Department for Environmental Protection, which includes divisions of air, water and enforcement. KFTC members have gotten to know him better lately, as it was his agencies that failed to properly monitor and catch thousands of admitted violations of the Clean Water Act by several coal companies over the last five years. One might think that would be reason to dismiss an employee.

But it gets worse. Scott and Peters then went on to try to shelter the coal companies from legal action by KFTC and allies, secretly negotiated a settlement agreement that ignored a judge’s order to include third-party intervenors, and have spent considerable cabinet resources to challenge the interests of coalfield residents to be a party to enforcement actions (losing at every level, so far). They let their views be known when they called the intervention of regular Kentuckians in the public actions of the cabinet an “unwarranted burden.”

It’s reasonable to expect that Steve Beshear may want some personnel changes in his second term. But it’s not a good sign that the cabinet employee open to meeting with coalfield residents on a regular basis and addressing their problems is the one now gone, and the ones who see the public as a nuisance and focus considerable resources defending polluters are still running the show.

Who Gov. Beshear and Len Peters name to replace Carl Campbell will be as telling as Campbell’s firing. There are names of some cabinet employees among the speculation whose appointment would represent the continued downward spiral of enforcement under the Beshear administration.

It should go without saying that the appointee should be committed to enforcing the law. Most cabinet employees are. But it’s disturbing that the two very public firings of cabinet officials (Ron Mills being the other, two years ago) were ones who seemed to have a strong sense of this duty.

A good replacement must be someone with an understanding of the role of environmental laws, and cabinet in enforcing those, to protect the health of all Kentuckians and safeguard our land, water and air. One must understand the cabinet as more than just a permitting agency, and know that including Kentuckians in the monitoring and enforcement of the law is a necessary part of doing a good job.