It was 28 years ago that KFTC became "official."  According to the book Making History: The First Ten Years of KFTC,

"Twenty-six people from 12 counties formally organized and named the Kentucky Fair Tax Coalition on August 17, 1981. They also agreed on a statement of purpose:

The Kentucky Fair Tax Coalition is a group of community based organizations and individuals promoting more effective and efficient community services through a fair and equitable taxation system throughout the state of Kentucky, with a particular interest in coal counties.

Also at that meeting, members "passed the hat for the first time. They netted KFTC's first funds, $38.

This Hazard meeting was not the first meeting of this group of people who were coming together from across eastern Kentucky. The group had met on several prior occasions to explore the possibilities of working together on common issues. Shared concerns included the quality of (or lack of) community services and public education in coal counties (which suffered from gross inequalities in the tax system) and the rights of landowners.

Many of the people involved were organizing in their respective home counties around these and related issues. The decision to launch a new organization was based on the understanding that the issues were all related and shared a common underlying roots cause: "the inequality of life with a single dominant industry – coal – that was not contributing its fair share."

"People, especially in eastern Kentucky, were getting to know each other. All around the region there was a loose network of people who had worked together with each other in various ways over the past 15 years or so. What we didn't have in those days was a structured connection between us. There was a no interlocking of these community-level efforts, until KFTC" — Herb E. Smith

Thanks to everyone who is helping KFTC continue to make history! If you're not a member click the here or Join button at the top of the page and become a part of the next 28 years!

As some folks are aware, there was a rally in Knott County last Saturday sponsored by several pro-coal industry groups. According to several first hand accounts, the main focus of many speakers was blasting members of Congress for working to address the dire issue of climate change.

Among the speakers was Roger Ford from Pike County, who spoke on behalf of Secretary of State Trey Grayson. Roger Ford has his own blog which he uses to promote ideas and positions about energy issues from the coal industry's perspective. And a reader recently sent us an interesting email pointing out a serious factual problem with Roger Ford's account of the rally.

First, our reader noted that Ford writes on his blog:

"On another note, I was proud to share the stage with Pike County Representative W. Keith Hall. As a coal operator and member of the House Appropriations Committee, Hall’s understanding of the importance of coal to the Kentucky economy for Kentucky families and to State Government in tax revenue more than most. Coal mining generates nearly $5 billion dollars in coal severance tax revenue to Kentucky annually. Much of this money comes back to individual coal counties to help fire departments, drug programs, and economic development, waterlines and sewer service. Without this coal-generated revenue, many programs and services that local government provides would not exist."

However, contrary to Ford's statement above, coal mining in the current year generated $292 million in severance tax dollars. (That amount set an all-time record.) Thus, the severance tax figure used by Ford is 17 times larger than the actual record-breaking amount. As our reader noted, "perhaps he rounded up."

Furthermore, a recent report issued by the Mountain Association for Community Economic Development concluded that the coal industry actually costs the taxpayers of Kentucky about $115 million annually. (The MACED study did not calculate other costs Kentuckians pay to host the coal industry, including health impacts and environmental degradation.)

There are a lot of serious issues to work through as Kentuckians grapple with the need to develop clean energy sources and jobs for the future. Reasonable people can disagree about the best policies and practices that are needed to make the transition to a clean energy economy. But let's stick to the facts. Our challenges are tough enough already.

Kentuckians For The Commonwealth strongly believes that we need better candidates if we want better decisions made in state and local government – and we want YOU to seriously think about what it would be like to run for office or to help one of your friends run.

Come to a powerful, energetic weekend at the beautiful Hindman Settlement School where we’ll build skills, connections, and confidence to work on elections or run for public office.

Led in partnership with Wellstone Action, a national center for training and leadership development for progressives, workshops topics will include campaign planning and budgeting, telling your story, grassroots voter contact, fundraising, base-building, stump speeches, developing a winning message and more.

For more information and to register online, Click Here.

     

On Thursday morning a school bus with a 60-70 students from elementary to high school age ran off the road while trying to avoid an on coming coal truck. The school bus traveling on Route 1499 in Pike County near the community of Biggs, slid off the road and scrapped a rock cliff next to the road.

The police reported up to 20 students were take to the hospital for minor injuries. The bus driver blamed the on coming coal truck, wet road conditions and mud on the road for accident.

You can read about the report on wlex18 website and watch the video news cast. You can also see a picture of the accident by visiting the Appalachian News Express website.

A quick search of the state Department of Mining Reclamation and Enforcement website under the interactive maps shows that there are about 35 active mines and 20 pending mine sites within a 2-3 mile radius of the community of Biggs. I can only wonder how many coal trucks are traveling daily on the curvy two lane road, route 1499.

The accident happened at about 8:00 AM on Thursday morning.

We are truly grateful this accident was not worse.

UPDATE: The EQC public hearing has been postponed due to the weather!!
From the EQC website:

Due to the inclement weather, the Environmental Quality Commission public forum for tonight (January 29) has been postponed.  A majority of the videoconferencing sites that were planned for the meeting are closed.  As soon as the meeting has been rescheduled, a notice will be placed on the Web site with the date, time and locations.

Tomorrow evening at 6 p.m. the Kentucky Environmental Quality Commission is hosting a public forum to discuss Governor Beshear's recently released energy plan.  Citizens from around the state will be able to participate in the forum via video conference at five locations (see below).  While there are some good ideas in the governor's energy plan, much of it will keep our state moving in the wrong direction, including proposals that would lead to huge increases in coal extraction and more mountaintop removal mining.  KFTC has just released a response to the plan with a point by point analysis of his proposals and how they fall short, and ideas for improvement.

In addition to time for public comments, discussions of upcoming legislative issues and mountaintop removal mining are expected. If you would like to preregister to speak during the public comment portion of the agenda, please contact:

Johnna McHugh
Director of Operations
Environmental Quality Commission
(502) 564-2674 ext. 121
johnna.mchugh@ky.gov

If you are able, please read our response and attend the hearing so that our voices can be heard in this debate.  Kentucky needs bold, new ideas to be a player in this new energy economy.  We cannot afford to continue down the same path we've been on, laying waste to our mountains and polluting our water and air.

FRANKFORT
Kentucky State University
Academic Services Building, 5th Floor

PIKEVILLE
Pikeville College
Community Technology Center, Room 134
Hambley Boulevard

BOWLING GREEN
Western Kentucky University
Media and Technology Hall, Room 279

LOUISVILLE (this is a change from an earlier location)
University of Louisville
Miller Information Technology Center (MITC), Room 55.
Enter the campus from the Third Street entrance onto the circle. The West Information Center will be on your right. At the West Information Center you will be directed to the parking lot and will be given directions to the building, if needed. MITC is a 3-minute walk from the parking lot.

RICHMOND
Eastern Kentucky University
University Building, Room 135
University Drive

Thank you for taking action!

Mine shut down after boulder rolls through house
The Associated Press

FRANKFORT, Ky. -- State officials have ordered a mining company to stop work at a site in eastern Kentucky after a rolling boulder destroyed a house.

The Kentucky Department for Natural Resources says it shut down work at a Pike County site run by Central Appalachia Mining Kentucky, LLC.

The state says a rock from the company's Marion Branch mine at Island Creek tumbled 500 feet and crashed into a home below the site on Wednesday. No one was injured, but the home was deemed unlivable...

For the complete AP story, click Here.

In May of this year, four KFTC members visited the coalfields of Colombia with a Witness for Peace delegation to the area. During this trip, these Kentuckians spoke with both the communities affected by these enormous open-pit coal mines as well as labor unionists who work in the mines. Tomorrow, Jesús Brochero and Estevinson Avila, two trade unionists from the two different mines the KFTC members visited will arrive in Lexington to begin a week long tour of Kentucky.

Come out to the following public events to listen to Jesús and Estevinson speak about the labor and environmental issues in Colombia. During these events, KFTC members Sara Pennington and/or Rully Urias will also speak, drawing connections and distinctions among the coalfields of Kentucky and those in Colombia.

Here's the list of events, with further information below:

Thursday, November 13

5:00 PM
Oswald Auditorium
Cooper Campus of Bluegrass Community and Technical College
Lexington, Kentucky

Click for flyer

Saturday, November 15

3:00 PM
Grapevine Community Center
Phyllis, Kentucky, in Pike County

Call the Whitesburg KFTC office for further directions: 606.632.0051

Click for flyer

Monday, November 17

7:00 PM
Hindman Settlement School
Hindman, Kentucky, in Knott County

Click for flyer

KFTC will have a potluck dinner for our guests starting at 6:00. Call the Whitesburg KFTC office if you'd like to join the potluck or need directions to the Settlement School: 606.632.0051

All presentations will begin with a slideshow by KFTC members illustrating their trip to the Colombian coalfields before Jesús and Estevinson speak. In addition to the lax environmental regulations that affect both the workers in the mines and the communities near the mines, trade union leaders are also at risk daily as Colombia is the country with the most assassinations of unionists in the world. This year alone, more than 41 unionists have been murdered, and the company that owns the mine where Estevinson works has been accused in United Stated courts of hiring paramilitaries to kill three of its unionized workers. With the Bush administration pushing for passage of the Colombia free trade agreement--which is held up in Congress due to Colombia's poor human's rights record, including the assassinations of labor leaders--these presentations are timely, and ones you won't want to miss.

Estivenson Avila is President of the Sintramienergetica Coal Miners’ Union, which unites workers from the Drummond-owned and operated mine of La Loma, Colombia. Jesús Brochero is a top leader of Sintracarbón, the National Union of Coal Industry Workers, which represents employees of the multinational-owned Cerrejón Mine, Colombia.

We had a big Letcher County phone bank on Saturday evening, and an even bigger three-county (Pike/Letcher/Knott) phone bank from Hindman Settlement School yesterday in which we had lots of great conversations and connected a lot of people with rides.

Today, members are focusing on just physically getting people to the polls.

All of this ground work is despite most of Letcher County not having drinkable water for the last few days.

The $200 million facility will be built on a 40-acre site on Ford Mountain, that is currently being mined and where the county’s landfill is located. Pike County  Judge Executive Wayne T. Rutherford  spoke about the project following the regular meeting of Fiscal Court. He was joined by Zig Resiak, an associate with Agresti. representatives from Oppenhiemer and the Royal Canadian Bank.

Resiak explained the process which will turn garbage into fuel.  The first step is to separate the recyclables from the solid waste, which is done using a patented water sorting method. There will be no “pickers”, people who have to sort through the waste, it was explained, and so reducing odors from the plant.  Once sorted, the biomass will be sent to an underground  concrete enclosed vessel where it will be mixed with a very weak acid solution to be converted into sugars. The sugars will then be fermented and distilled into alcohol. The fermentation step produces carbon dioxide, which, instead of being released into the atmosphere, is funneled through a closed system and used to generate the weak acid that is required in the biomass conversion process. The type of plant proposed by Agresti generates about 800,000 gallons of clean water each month, and reuses its water. The facility, officials said, is “environmentally friendly.”

When fully operational, the Central Appalachian Ethanol Plant could process as much as 1,500 tons per day, and could accept garbage for processing from all counties in Eastern Kentucky, western Virginia and southern West Virginia. Pike County currently receives 400 tons of MSW each day. The Pike County hollow landfill is nearing capacity, and the government will not authorize the creation of any more landfills.

 According to Rutherford, the plant will cost $200 million to build, provide a projected $87.3 million in construction wages to the local economy and once constructed, create 120 jobs and $30 million in wages at full production. “Pike County could realize up to $750,000 in revenue per year, with a contract we’re negotiating,” Rutherford said. The income would come in the form of fuel-offset credits, carbon credits and recyclable materials.

To read more see the following articles:

Appalachian News Express http://www.news-expressky.com/articles/2008/08/20/top_story/01trash.txt

The Williamson (WVa.) Dailey News http://www.williamsondailynews.com/articles/2008/08/20/news/doc48ac5029060ed017296111.txt

and WYMT, including public comments, http://www.wkyt.com/wymtnews/headlines/27150479.html

KFTC and the Sierra Club have sent notice to TECO Coal Company of their intent to sue the company for creating two large valley fills without a permit.

The letter, sent on Tuesday, accuses TECO subsidiary Clintwood Elkhorn Mining of violating the Clean Water Act by dumping its mining waste into Pike County streams and allowing it to remain there. The violation is near Fishtrap Lake.

A “Section 404” permit from the U.S. Corps of Engineers is required before a company may fill a stream. Clintwood Elkhorn has applied for this permit but it has not been granted.

“Clintwood Elkhorn's filling of the streams at issue in this letter before the Corps has considered the permit application betrays a reckless disregard for the rule of law,” the letter states.

“It's a slap in the face to the community members and to the enforcement departments,” said KFTC member Rully Urias, who lives near Fishtrap Lake. “It shows their total disregard of the laws in place to protect the environment and the people. And maybe they'll get a slap on the wrist for it."

Urias and Sierra Club organizer John Cleveland visited the site on May 22 and saw two valley fills and two ponds that were not approved on any permit. A followup conversation with Corps officials in their Sassafras, Kentucky office revealed that they were aware of this violation because Clintwood Elkhorn had self-reported it, but the agency has not acted.

“You can't do two valleys fills and say I didn't know. They knew what they were doing. It's definitely not a mistake,” said Urias. “I knew they did stuff like this, I just didn't think they'd be so bold about it. How often does it happen if they have a protocol for when it does happen?”