In one of its final legislatives moves before adjourning on April 14, the Kentucky Senate tabled a vote on House Bill 227, the anti-rooftop solar bill pushed by utilities. At the last possible moment, Senate leaders recommitted the bill to a committee, rather than bringing it up for a vote, because the bill did not have enough support to pass.
In April KFTC members launched the Power House Project, an exciting effort to build New Power in every sense of the word: new economic power, new clean energy power, and new political power.
On March 29, nearly a 150 people from across Kentucky and central Appalachia gathered in Harlan County for a community conversation with each other and with Rev. Dr. William J. Barber II and Rev. Dr. Liz Theoharis, as part of the national listening tour of the Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival.
Congress should renew a tax on coal companies that supports medical treatment for miners disabled by black lung and expires at the end of this year. A vicious resurgence of the incurable disease gives lawmakers little choice.
The RECLAIM Act of 2017 (House Resolution 1731) actually offers a cause for optimism as it combines concern for the natural environment and opportunities for employment. But there is not much time left for its passage.
The bill is sponsored by Rep. Hal Rogers and enjoys bipartisan support. It has made it through the House Natural Resources Committee …
The anti-solar energy bill that was narrowly passed by the House and is awaiting action in the Senate illustrates two weaknesses in Kentucky’s civic character: We try to cling to the past, and we tolerate dirty politics.
House Bill 227 was written by electric utilities to protect their monopolies by discouraging Kentuckians from installing solar panels on their homes.
Congress has pending before it the opportunity to provide a $1 billion boost to the local economies struggling with the decline of the coal industry.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has the power to make this a reality for hundreds of Kentucky families looking for the means to make a decent living and stay in the Kentucky communities they call home.
That’s why we — and 14 other county judge-executives across the state — sent a letter to McConnell imploring him to see that the RECLAIM Act becomes law soon.
Senator Mitch McConnell is in a position to direct more than $100 million to economic and community development projects in communities hardest hit by the decline in coal mining.
Kentuckians held an action outside his Lexington office today asking him to waste no more time in doing that.
“The time is now to pass the RECLAIM Act,” said Lyndsay Tarus, the Economic Transition Coordinator for the Alliance for Appalachia. “This is a jobs bill. The Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement has estimated that 4,600 jobs could be generated through the RECLAIM Act across the country.
