Join KFTC's delegation to a conference and day of action focused on transition and the future of Appalachia. The events aim to advance the dialogue about current energy extraction practices, with a specific focus on ending mountaintop removal coal mining, and advocate for a renewable energy future for Appalachia on a national stage

"We envision a vibrant weekend during which thousands will learn about the challenges Appalachia faces and ways to build a movement to end the destruction and plant the seeds of a sustainable and prosperous Appalachia," said the organizers of the events.

The conference, entitled Voices from the Mountains, will be held on September 25-26, 2010. Organizers of the Voices from the Mountain conference are planning a space for regional participants to grow and connect through strategy sessions, workshops, learning, and cultural events. Topics will include both exploration of the issues facing the region and ways to move forward.

The day following the conference, September 27th, many people from the Appalachian region will gather with conference attendees for a day of mobilization and rallying on Capitol Hill. 2000 people, including movement leaders from the region, celebrities such as Ashley Judd and Silas House, and many Appalachian residents are expected to gather.

Click here to sign up or learn more.

"Many social leaders refrain from publicly speaking out. As soon as they do, they'll become targets. They'll kill them. While telling you these stories puts the life of the person telling you at risk, it is important to get this information out. This can serve as a powerful denouncement of these activities in the U.S."

And maybe it can lead to change.

This from a human rights activist in a town called Cienaga just a few hours after our Witness for Peace delegation stepped off the plane in Colombia. In this meeting, we heard story after story of how a privately owned U.S. corporation named Drummond degrades the local community, abuses human rights and even has instructed its paramilitary forces to kill union leaders, according to community members. The message about the danger of speaking out would be echoed in nearly all the meetings we had with communities, unions and other local groups during the week.

Above (left to right): Cari Moore, John Capillo, Patty Tarquino, Nancy Reinhart, Randy Wilson

A delegation of 5 from Kentucky - including 3 KFTC members and 2 staff - participated in this Witness for Peace trip, which was focused on "The People Behind the Coal in Kentucky and Colombia." We spent the week learning about the impacts of the coal industry on communities in a northern coastal region called La Guajira.

Drummond Corporation, owned by Gary Drummond from Birmingham, AL, built a port in Cienaga about 20 years ago to ship the coal it mines to the U.S. and Europe. Drummond also purchased part of the Colombian national railroad, privatizing it to run coal.

Drummond Railway                     Drummond Port                           Barbed Wire Surrounding Port

The company now uses the railway to transport coal from its coal mine to its port, where long conveyor belts take the coal out into the sea and dump it onto barges. The port is guarded by a combination of private militia and national police and is surrounded by barbed wire. About 30 million tons of coal is exported from the port annually.

At the time of the port's construction, Drummond management promised the community that the port would yield prosperity for the people and employ local workers. Instead, community members say it is has polluted local waters with coal dust so fishing has become impossible, it has polluted the air with coal dust leading to many adults and children getting sick with rashes and respiratory problems, and it employs very few local people. The royalty monies that the mine pays are often stolen by corrupt politicians, leaving little of it invested in Cienaga community projects.

Randy Wilson, a Clay County KFTC member, responded to the stories he heard in this first meeting, saying, "It doesn't fit in my head how the U.S. – a country that preaches to the world about freedom – can step all over people here." He went on to draw parallels between the impacts of the coal industry on Colombian communities and workers and the industry's impacts in his home, eastern Kentucky.

A Cienega city representative and community activist mentioned his hopes for the future. "Our hope is in making the security situation better here so that we can organize. Our best hope is in community organizing."

Cari Moore, a Knott County KFTC member, left charged up to bring these stories back and affect change here in the U.S., in Kentucky and in Colombia.

"Injustice is everybody's business. It is so important that we show the connections [between Kentucky and Colombia], and show Colombians our reality. It is great to leave this on a note of hope, thinking about things we can do to help."

This is the first in a series of blog posts to come about the KFTC group's experience during this Witness for Peace tour in Colombia.

Action Alert from our friends at REACT (Rubbertown Emergency ACTion) in Louisville.

Contact Congressman John Yarmuth & Congressman Ed Whitfield and ask them to send a representative to the Toxic Chemicals Safety Act of 2010 hearing this Thursday, July 29th at 10 AM in the Rayburn Room 2123.

Congressman John Yarmuth: 1-202-225-5401

Congressman Ed Whitfield: 1-800-328-5629

HB 8520 is a bill we MUST support. This bill brings us closer to making sure our exposure to toxic chemicals from smoke stacks and consumer products (i.e., toys, baby bottles, etc.) is reduced. The bill not only deals with testing chemicals prior to them being released into the market place but also includes environmental justice provisions that would help those communities, like those near Rubbertown.

Additionally, Ed Whitfield is on a key committee and needs to hear from us.

Please take a few minutes to call and feel free to use the verbiage above to let the congressmen know this is important to you. Then let us know how things went.

Thank You!

Eboni Neal Cochran, REACT (Rubbertown Emergency ACTion)

KFTC does a good job of asking candidates where they stand on issues leading up to Election Day, compiling their answers and getting them out to our members through our printed Voter Guides and www.KentuckyElection.org.

But we haven't generally done a great job of encouraging our members to contact candidates and tell them where they stand on issues - and that's at least as important. 

Email or call the campaigns to let them know where you stand on one or more issues.

Here is contact information for the two candidates for the big US Senate race:

1-866-232-9747

1332 Andrea Street, Bowling Green, KY 42104

Jack Conway - www.jackconway.org

502-632-1820

Online contact form

PO Box 6168, Louisville Kentucky, 40206

Of course, there are hundreds of candidates for other races in the state too, and you can use the Secretary of State's website to find out who's running in your area, then look then up.  Click a link below, depending on if you're searching for someone running for a state races or a local county race.

Click here for Statewide Candidates

(state legislature, etc.)

(City commission, Mayors, County Judge Executives, etc.)

You can also go to where the candidates are and talk to them...

at meet and greets, campaign stump speeches, etc.  Candidates have to get out and meet a lot of people to run a good campaign and Democracy works best when those people tell the candidates what stances they ought to have on important issues.  You could even join a delegation of KFTC folks to come to Fancy Farm  in early August, but there should be plenty of opportunities to meet candidates right in your own community. 

Organize a meeting between local candidates and KFTC leaders.

Contact your local KFTC Organizer to put together a meeting with candidates in your community.  Candidate meetings are good opportunities to inform candidates about issues that KFTC works on.  If we meet with one candidate for a given office, we need to do our best to schedule meetings with his or her opponent as well.

If many of us take some time to contact candidates about issues we care about, it can make a real difference in their respective campaigns - and it's much easier to convince a candidate to change their mind on an important issue that it is to change the mind of a sitting legislator.

The proposed coal-burning Smith plant is refusing to die.

Your voice is needed to end it once and for all!

The coal-burning Smith plant proposed by the East Kentucky Power Cooperative is the living dead. 

It's taken hit after hit in recent weeks from the work of KFTC and our allies – we've had some good success. For example, EKPC has temporarily pulled its request for financing approval, a major audit said the plant is the "biggest risk" EKPC will face in many years, and the U.S. EPA has objections to the state-issued air permit .... yet, EKPC is marching on, seeking a permit to put millions of tons of coal ash from the plant into Kentucky's streams. It's time to tell EKPC and state officials to pull the plug and stop wasting taxpayer money. It's time for good, local, clean energy jobs instead.

You can help stop this coal zombie:

Attend the public hearing held by the Army Corps of Engineers next week, Tuesday, June 8, at 7 p.m. in Winchester. Stand with folks from all over the state to demand a clean alternative to the Smith plant. Help say it's time to end this toxic project once and for all. 

Click here if you're considering attending the hearing.

Background

This hearing is our time to make a public demonstration of our opposition to a federal permit that would allow EKPC to impact 14 miles of waterways, burying about half of them under hazardous coal ash. And, it's time to stand up once again in support of the clean and less-costly alternative of energy efficiency, weatherization and renewable energy. All Kentuckians, whether you receive your power from EKPC or not, are stakeholders in this process as the plant would contaminate the air we all breathe and the water we drink. Already, every waterway in Kentucky is already under a fish advisory warning due to mercury contamination from coal burning power plants. Click here to download a flyer with more information about the hearing and the impacts of the permit.

Now is the time to say, “Enough is enough!” The solution is simple and clear. Energy saving and renewable energy programs won’t need a permit because they won’t pollute our water. We must use this opportunity to speak out, letting the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and EKPC know that this clean energy solution is the just and healthy choice, not only for EKPC ratepayers, but for all Kentuckians.

Share our Facebook event about the hearing.  If you are on Facebook you can invite your friends to the event.

This post was written by Jefferson County KFTC member and intern Beth Bissmeyer.

Hearing the stories of the devastation caused by Mountaintop Removal coal mining is what first got me involved in KFTC. A few years later, I continue to be outraged by what my friends in Eastern Kentucky deal with daily, but I now also find myself enthralled by what is happening in my hometown, Louisville, with coal ash.

Over the past few months, I've learned more about my connections to the cycle of coal beyond extraction through learning about coal ash, which is the stuff that's leftover in smokestacks and furnaces after coal is burned in power plants. In February, I first learned of E.ON's plans to add a 60-acre coal-combustion waste (CCW) landfill adjacent to their Cane Run Rd. power plant in South Louisville, five miles away from the neighborhood I grew up in and from where I now live. Coal ash is a new issue to me and to many folks, but one thing's for sure, it's not the kind of stuff you want in your neighborhood or next to your city's water source. Coal ash contains concentrated amounts of heavy metals and other pollutants that have been found to cause cancer and other health problems in humans. A 2007 EPA report found that those living near coal ash dumps have a 1 in 50 chance of getting cancer. There is already a coal ash impoundment at the Cane Run Rd. site that the EPA considers “high hazard,” meaning that a dam break is likely to cause significant damage, including loss of life.

Jefferson County KFTC members have started organizing on this issue, mobilizing people to submit comments on E.ON's Section 404 permit through the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and on the 401 Water Quality Certification Permit through the Kentucky Division of Water. Members made the permits viral through email and Facebook, and some also phone-banked and made fliers. Even though there was a short window of time to organize, members helped generate more than 100 letters and emails on the 404 permit.

Last Tuesday, concerned citizens were given the opportunity to speak out at a public hearing held by the Kentucky Division of Waste Management. More than 125 people filed into the cafeteria at Conway Middle School, and while some were KFTC members, most of the people there were residents who live next to the proposed coal ash landfill site who organized on their own.

Several people who spoke at the hearing told of health problems they and their neighbors have ranging from high instances of asthma, learning disabilities, kidney disease, and multiple forms of cancer. Some noted that the area is polluted enough with not only the Cane Run Rd. power station, but also multiple chemical companies and an old toxic chemical dump. Monica Burkhead, a resident of Riverside Gardens who organized people in her neighborhood to come to the hearing by putting up fliers and going door-to-door, said of the already-standing coal ash landfill,

“You've got black soot everywhere; you buy a new car and within two years, your car's paint job is shot. You've got kids that have learning disabilities. There's excessive amounts of ADHD. There's excessive amounts of cancer, kidney disease. People are sick there constantly. They're dying. I'm just sick and tired of it. I've lived there for 35 years and all I do is watch people die.”

Terri Humphrey gave comment while she and Monica held photos of the proposed site and of the 2008 Kingston coal ash spill. She spoke to the dangers of coal ash and to the frustration of finding discrepancies in information on the proposed landfill from different agencies who have a say in the process. Many residents didn't even find out about the hearing until a day or two before.

One older woman who's lived in Riverside Gardens for decades, Rose Wilson, fought back tears as she told the room that she's raised so many kids, her own and the neighborhood's, and is so tired of seeing them all get sick.

While the room was filled with people who are justifiably upset about this proposal, there was also a strong sense of community and need to act. A second hearing was promised by the Kentucky Department of Waste Management official who moderated the hearing, and Metro Council representative Judy Green said she and neighboring council representative Rick Blackwell will introduce a resolution to try to halt the application process until the EPA makes a decision on how to regulate coal ash. Still, the greatest sense of urgency came from community members.

Adonna Williams, a resident of Riverside Gardens, said, “Everybody, they get upset and they want to slack off, but you've got to stand there, you've got to fight the fight. If you don't fight the fight, if you don't keep on, if you don't keep going, then they'll always win.”

Let's keep fighting the fight.

Take Action!

Stand with Adonna, Monica, and other residents of South Louisville and speak out against this proposed coal ash landfill. Comments may be submitted in writing by the close of business on June 18^th to:

Ronald D. Gruzesky, P.E.

Division of Waste Management

200 Fair Oaks

Frankfort, KY 40601-1190

Please reference AI # 2121 and Application APE200100001 on any correspondence.

Some media coverage of the hearing:

• WAVE 3
• FOX 41
• WHAS 11
• Courier-Journal

To learn more about this issue and how you can get involved, please contact beth@kftc.org.

KFTC and our allies in the Kentucky Forward Coalition are rallying in support of a people’s budget—a budget with adequate investments, with enough money for our kids’ after-school programs, health centers, affordable tuition, and safe communities. Kentuckians are worth these investments, and we’re standing together to call on the legislature to commit to the fair revenue reforms we need to make them.

Our rally is today at 5:00 p.m. at the front Capitol steps in Frankfort. There will be teachers, students of all sorts, people who keep our communities healthy, and people who want Kentucky to be a place that attracts good jobs—all coming together to move Kentucky forward. Below are some details to help you participate. Hope to see you there!

If you can't make it, call in today and tomorrow!

If you can't make the trip to Frankfort, please participate from home by calling in to the Legislative Message Line today or tomorrow. Leave a message for your state representative and senator, along with Speaker Stumbo and Senate President Williams.  The number to the Legislative Message Line is 1-800-372-7181, and it's open from 8am to 4:30pm, M-F.

Message:
It's time to move Kentucky Forward.  I support Representative Wayne's plan for comprehensive tax reforms that are fair and adequate! 

Other details about the Kentucky Forward Rally...(And if you're coming, at this point, you probably already know these!)
What should I wear?
Dress for the weather! Aside from that, wear your green KFTC shirt. If you don’t have one of those, wear red, white and/or blue.

When should I get there?
The rally starts at 5:00 at the Capitol steps, so plan to get there by 4:30 or 4:45.

How should I get there?
There is likely a carpool from your area, so get in touch with your nearest chapter organizer. If you don’t have one nearby, call Jessica at 859.533.0613 or jessicabreen@kftc.org.

What should I bring?
Yourself and your friends! Your signs are also most welcome.

Driving directions From the West (Louisville)
Take 1-64 to exit number 53-B to Highway 127 (Northbound)
Drive North on 127 to intersection of 127 and 676 (the East-West Connector). Turn Right on Route 676. Go down the hill.
At the stoplight at the bottom of the hill, turn left onto Route 420. (If you cross over the Kentucky River on 676 you’ve gone to far.) Follow Route 420 as it runs parallel to the Kentucky River.
Follow Route 420 for about 1/2 a mile. You will soon see a large concrete structure hanging out over the roadway. This is the entrance to the Capitol Annex garage. Turn left into the Garage. Park anywhere except the 2nd level. Take the elevator to the top level (level 1) of the garage. In front of you, you’ll see the Annex. To your right, will be the Capitol. Join us at 5:00 p.m. for a rally on the front steps of the Capitol. These steps are all the way around the other side of the building.

Directions From the East (Lexington)
Take either 1-64 or U.S. 60 to Frankfort. From 1-64, take exit 58 and turn right onto US 60.
Follow US 60 past the East-West Connector, also called Route 676.
Stay on US 60 as it bends sharply to the left and becomes East Main Street. Follow this road towards downtown Frankfort.
As you travel along East Main Street/Route 60, you will see Capital Avenue coming in from the left. Turn left here and then proceed straight. You will come to the Capitol in about .5 miles. You can find parking on the street, beside the Capitol or Capitol Annex building, or in the Capitol Annex parking garage, which is located below ground on the left side of the capitol. Park anywhere except the 2nd level. Take the elevator to the top level (level 1) of the garage. In front of you, you’ll see the Annex. To your right, will be the Capitol. Join us at 5:00 p.m. for a rally on the front steps of the Capitol. These steps are all the way around the other side of the building.

Our rally starts on the Capitol Steps at 5:00 p.m. and ends at 5:45. You’ll be back in your car by 6:00.

It’s going to be great! Hope to see you there.

Students, can you spot Kentucky some cash? One more time?

The Kentucky Legislature didn't want to ask the state's richest to pay their fair share, so students, once again, are footing part of their bill. As the legislature anticipates the Special Session to balance the budget, Kentucky's public universities are calling for 5% and 6% tuition hikes in anticipation of budget cuts.  These increases are on top of a decade of tuition hikes that average out to be 10% a year. 

Over the last five years, in-state tuition for Kentucky's public universities has gone up about 57%.  Think about your family's income over the last five years.  Has it gone up 57%?  No way!  Not even close, right?  Most families are doing well just to have kept up with the 18% cost of living increase since 2005.

Well that's too bad, but what about financial aid?

Nope, not right now. 

Kentucky's College Access Program is supposed to help struggling students afford college through loans.  But CAPS is state funded, and is yet another victim of the legislators' failure to pass revenue reforms.  This year's deadline for students to apply for financial aid was March 15.  More than 16,000 students applied in the week leading up to the deadline.  Because of the legislature's failure to pass revenue reforms, each of those 16,599 students have been told that despite being qualified and meeting the deadline, they can't be helped because the state is out of money.  (You can read more in this Courier-Journal article. It also attracted the attention of the Huffington Post.)  This is a colossal failure on the part of our legislators who aren't standing up for comprehensive and fair revenue reforms.

But this isn't a new problem.  According to a MACED report about Investing in Kentucky's Working Families, almost half of the people who applied and qualified for need-based financial aid in 2008 were turned away, leaving 45,000 would-be students behind.  And in 2009, the funds available were $64 million short of the funds needed.

Folks are expected to pull themselves up by their bootstraps.  The very least that our legislators can do is stop cutting the straps.

Bottom line?

For the last nine years, our legislators have been able to choose between revenue reforms that ask the state's wealthiest to contribute their fair share, or continued cuts to all the state programs and services and systems that keep up healthy, wealthy, and wise, including higher ed.  For the last nine years, they've chosen the latter.  All of us, including our students, are paying the price.

Take Action!

Call your legislators!

It’s time to make your voice heard for meaningful revenue reforms to sustain public services. Please take three minutes to call your state representative and senator, along with Speaker Stumbo, and Senate President Williams.  Tell them that Kentucky shouldn't keep asking students to foot the bill for the state's wealthiest, and that now is the time to pass a just budget and real revenue reforms. You can find out the state representative and senator who serves your county, and their home contact information, here.

 Come rally with us in Frankfort!

When the legislators come back to Frankfort, we want to greet them with a clear message that Kentucky deserves better.  KFTC and allies are planning a 5 pm rally at the Capitol on the first day of the Special Session, whenever it takes place.  We’ll have more details when the Session is called, but please plan to participate!

By KFTC Member Martin Mudd

For the last five years I have been aware of the abomination that is Mountaintop Removal mining, thanks to KFTC. I have attended rallies in Frankfort, lobbied politicians, sent letters. It was only last year, however, that I first participated in an act of non-violent civil disobedience to protest Massey Energy's crimes against the residents of the coalfields. I was inspired to do so while participating in the 2009 Mountain Justice Summer training camp, where I heard the passionate stories of people fighting MTR right in their backyards. Their stories moved me, and I knew that I had to do something more than just send another letter to Frankfort.

I want to invite all members of KFTC to join me at Mountain Justice Summer 2010. Come hear the stories of MTR, the history of resistance to strip mining; see the devastating ecological and human impacts caused by surface mining in Appalachia. Come learn techniques of resistance, how to organize in the coalfields and elsewhere, how to heal broken land and help build sustainable economies and communities. Come celebrate Appalachian culture in words, music, art and dance. Come join author and KFTC member Wendell Berry in a conversation about what it's going to take to stop the destruction of our mountains.

Mountain Justice is a group of people across the country that demand the abolition of MTR and steep-slope strip mining of coal. We work to protect the cultural and natural heritage of the Appalachian coal fields. We work to contribute with grassroots organizing, public education, nonviolent civil disobedience and other forms of citizen action.

The camp will be at Wiley's Last Resort in Letcher County from May 27-June 6. All ages are welcome. Come when you can, leave when you must. Register now at www.mountainjustice.org

I'll see you there!

Last week’s passage of Arizona’s SB 1070, the sweeping anti-immigrant legislation that mandates racial profiling and encourages the terrorization of people who “look undocumented,” has galvanized people across the U.S. to join together in solidarity with the people of Arizona who repudiate the hate and racism manifested in this law, and the political cowardice that allowed for its passage. 

Arizona groups are organizing full-on to resist the law and challenge the legislation, and there are ways that you can help.

• Visit the ¡Alto Arizona! Website, the home base for groups working together to organize against SB 1070.   You’ll find...
•  a popular education version of the bill, lots of articles, resources, and ways to take action.
  
• a link to an online petition to President Obama, asking him to protect the people of Arizona by denouncing this law in three specific ways.  
• You can also learn how you can help by volunteering in Arizona and by donating to support the work on Arizona’s ground.

• Go to the rally in support of immigrants' rights in Louisville on Saturday, sponsored by the The Kentucky May Day Coalition, a Louisville organization of labor unions, religious groups, civil rights and immigrant rights organizations and individuals.  Saturday, May 1, 10 a.m. - 1 p.m. at all intersections leading to Churchill Downs. Meet at the corner of 3rd St. and Central Ave. at 10 a.m. to get flyers and instructions, and contact sbartlett@ag-missions.org or (502) 896 9171 for more information.
  

• Support the Kentucky Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights (KCIRR), a grassroots organization that works for immigrants’ rights here in Kentucky.  KCIRR recently released a statement repudiating the Arizona law, and is developing a strategy to organize for immigration reform and justice in Kentucky.  KCIRR's condemnation of the anti-immigration bill is below.

Last Friday, Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer signed into law SB 1070, which requires police officers to inquire into and investigate the immigration status of anyone with whom they have any “lawful contact.” ”Lawful contact” is not limited to those being arrested for other, unrelated crimes. Victims of crimes and witnesses to crimes will also be in “lawful contact” with police officers, and will be required to carry proof of their lawful status at all times or risk arrest and criminal prosecution. Those who cannot confirm that they are legally present in the United States will be arrested, prosecuted for misdemeanor trespassing, and turned over to immigration enforcement officers. Anyone who provides transportation to, conceals, harbors, or otherwise shields an undocumented person can be prosecuted as well.

This new law has been widely panned by legal experts as unconstitutional on the grounds that it usurps federal authority and would mandate racial profiling.

The Kentucky Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights (KCIRR) condemns the passage and signing of this law in Arizona. What is happening in Arizona is an embarrassment to a nation that respects equality under the law and the rights of all people. No one in America should fear harassment and arrest by police simply because of the way they look, and nations around the globe are watching us in disbelief. The law mandates that police verify the immigration status of anyone they have ‘reasonable suspicion’ is undocumented and arrest people who aren’t carrying their immigration paperwork. But how is a police officer on the streets of Phoenix, untrained in immigration law, supposed to distinguish between an undocumented immigrant and a US citizen? Supporters of the new law have indicated that police officers will be able to tell simply by “the clothes that the individual wears.”

Arizona’s population is over 25% Hispanic/Latino and 5% Native American. This law, if put into effect, will unleash a public safety catastrophe, disabling law enforcement from pursuing real criminals while sending crime victims and witnesses into hiding. It authorizes and encourages widespread racial profiling, and further destroys the fragile ties that bind a community together. The individual rights of all Arizonans will be subject to abuse and denial.

Arizona’s dangerous embrace of a future as a police state clearly demonstrates the urgent need for real, humane comprehensive immigration reform. We wholeheartedly agree with President Obama’s statement at a citizenship ceremony last week when he said, “If we continue to fail to act at a federal level, we will continue to see misguided efforts opening up around the country.” But talk is not enough. President Obama and the United States Congress must take immediate and aggressive action to stop other states from following Arizona’s misguided path, and demonstrate stronger leadership in passing comprehensive immigration reform legislation now.

There will be more information and opportunities from KCIRR in the coming days and weeks.  Stay tuned, and in the meantime, take action to help turn the tide!