Fallen Coal Miners Should Never Be Forgotten

On the second anniversary of the Upper Big Branch Disaster we focus upon the tragedy that happened only two years prior. The lives of 29 honest hard working men were lost and their families were left to suffer a life devoid of their love. Their deaths came as an echo from the past, and like many others before them, their lives had been considered expendable by those who pursue vast wealth through egregious profit. This is the modern age of mining, safety was supposed to be better. Unfortunately from offices hundreds of miles from the coalfield, miners are still regarded as numbers on a spreadsheet, overhead, and in some cases as poor unintelligent unsophisticated people who are being blessed with good paying jobs in impoverished regions of our country. Despite what they would have us believe, a coal company's concern for their employees begins and ends with economics.

Today as we hold vigil over the loss of the 29 men of Upper Big Branch, we should also think about the thousands of others whose last breath was drawn in the cold darkness of a coal mine. We should hold within our hearts the many grief stricken sons and daughters, husbands and wives, parents, brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles, nephews, nieces, grand parents, and friends who must continue on in this life without seeing another smile from their loved one.

Today we must realize that so long as coal is mined for profit more lives will be lost, more funeral homes will be filled with grieving hearts.  The only way to break this cycle is to embrace change, to fight for whats right just as our forefathers did. God bless all our nations coal miners past and present and lets all start looking for a better future.

Kentucky Coal Legislation

Everyone knows that Kentucky is a coal state. Year after year millions of tons of coal are mined from the eastern and western regions of Kentucky, generating billions of dollars for the coal and steel industries. Studies have been published stating that Kentucky's coal industry generates from 18,000 direct jobs to the inflated figure of 200,000 indirect jobs. But what about the other 4.1 million people residing in Kentucky? Do they depend on coal mining?

Some would say the tax revenues generated by coal helps the state budget. Others argue that most of those tax revenues (and more) end up being spent fixing the various problems caused by the coal industry. There are environmental clean ups that must be done, repairs to state highways after overloaded coal trucks haul on them, and you can't discount the amount of money spent on the impoverished coalfield citizens who require state health care and financial support due to the high unemployment rates which are a direct result of a mono-economy created by the coal industry.  Others might say that Kentucky's coal is what keeps electric rates cheap, when in fact most of the coal burned in Kentucky comes from out west in Wyoming. So does "Big Coal" and coal politics help the other 4.1 million people in Kentucky?  Hold on to your knickers, you're about to find out.

Those looking to embrace the Third Industrial Revolution (a $174 billion dollar up and coming revolution) have found out Kentucky isn't the best place to set up shop. As far as the Kentucky State Legislature is concerned, clean energy is a dirty word and getting the government to help bolster a clean energy economy is difficult at best. For those of you who are not familiar with why we need legislation to help the clean energy economy (and the political process of how to get them), here is a really quick and super simple rundown.

Let's say the power companies don't want to fool with paying people for the electricity their solar panels generate. They can create a lot of legal "issues" and excuses as to why not. Dozens of other states and countries put laws into effect creating "Feed In Tariffs" which pay solar system owners set rates for the power their panels produce. As a result more people want to install solar systems because they can get hard cash back for their hardware investment.

Logically, the next step would be to have Kentucky follow suit with a similar law or regulation. People interested in renewable energy production contact a house legislator and ask them to sponsor a bill to create a feed in tariff and introduce it for the legislative process. The bill then gets sent to the committee on committees to decide the committee it goes to, then the legislators within that committee decide whether the bill gets "heard" and passed on for a vote on the house floor. If the bill gets the popular vote and  wins it goes to the senate, where it is once again put through committees, decided upon, then sent to the floor for a vote. If it gets the vote, then it goes to the governor to be signed into law or given a veto.

This is what's happening right now with  Clean Energy Opportunity Act (HB 167) which would create a feed in tariff system as well as increase energy efficiency programs and other renewable energy production. One study found the bill could generate somewhere in the neighborhood of 28,000 new jobs in Kentucky while keeping our utility rates from raising as high as they are projected to with just coal generated power. It seems like a no brainer right?

If you've got 4.1 million people who could truly benefit from such a bill vs. 200,000 potentially anti-renewable energy/pro-coal folks in the coalfields who think it will take jobs (and it won't), there shouldn't be a problem getting it signed into law, right? Well, if we know anything, we know our political system isn't built to work for the population at large. Such bills as this get stopped in committee, committees who are made up mostly of pro-coal politicians enjoying the power and benefits of coal industry lobbying. Right now the Clean Energy Opportunity Act is waiting for a hearing in the Tourism Development and Energy Committee chaired by Leslie Combs whose district is Pike County (big coal country). As the chair she has the power to say whether or not the bill even gets a hearing. What you'll find is that in most cases bills are "killed in committee"


The power of coal industry in Frankfort is disturbing. They have people in exactly the right places (committee positions) to decide which bills make it to the general assembly floor for vote. It's a  filtration system... allow the bills that help the coal industry through, block those that might negatively impact coal's bottom line. To make matters worse, pro-coal legislators have tremendous influence over other legislators. Many legislators who are trying to get their bills through (such as getting money appropriated to build that new bridge, or help their school system) think twice about touching bills which would cause the coal industry trouble. If they do, they'll encounter resistance getting their own bill through the coal controlled committee process.

Doesn't seem fair does it? I'm sure it seems more than fair if your a coal company executive or share holder, or even a coal miner depending upon a mining job. If you're someone looking for work or to start a business in an up and coming multi-billion dollar industry, or if you're living next door to a coal fired power plant with an asthmatic child, you've probably realized there's a huge lump of coal tipping the scales.

In case of dam break: No plan | Editorial | Kentucky.com

In case of dam break: No plan | Editorial | Kentucky.com

On Feb. 26, 1972, a wave of coal waste and water roared down Buffalo Creek in West Virginia, killing 125 people and leaving 4,000 people homeless. Pittston Coal Co. knew its dam was failing, but warned no one.

On the 40th anniversary of the Buffalo Creek tragedy, ponder this: Kentucky has 270 high-hazard dams or impoundments but nothing that requires emergency action plans from the owners and operators.

Kentucky is one of just 10 states that have no emergency action plan requirement.

High-hazard dams are those where failure could cause a loss of human life or substantial damage to private or public property.

If Kentucky required the plans, there would be protocols for notifying authorities when a dam shows signs of failure. The public and emergency responders would have maps of where there would likely be flooding. Without the plans, warnings and evacuations will be haphazard or too late.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency, the U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration and the American Society of Civil Engineers recommend requiring emergency action plans from dam owners.
But despite repeated attempts in the legislature, and Kentucky's own wake-up call when a Massey Energy coal-waste impoundment in Martin County failed, nothing has been done.

The Martin County spill in 2000 released twice as much coal waste and water as the Buffalo Creek flood. No one died or was injured, probably because the water exploded from a mine portal leading to a creek along which few people lived, while the toxic residue from coal-washing escaped through another portal and oozed into yards and gardens along a heavily populated creek bottom.

There was no warning from the coal company to residents on either creek.

The coal industry operates 105 of Kentucky's high-hazard impoundments.

After the Martin County spill, the industry was urged to adopt safer methods for dealing with waste from mining and processing coal.

U.S. Rep. Hal Rogers obtained $2 million for a study of safer alternatives, such as using a filter press technology to dry the waste for disposal, eliminating the need to hold huge amounts of water behind earthen dams at the heads of populated hollows.

Despite the availability of safer technologies, Kentucky has permitted seven new coal slurry impoundments since 2000.

After the Martin County spill, two Eastern Kentucky lawmakers sponsored legislation requiring emergency action plans. The state cabinet that's responsible for dam safety supported the legislation, and it was approved by the House in 2009, shortly after a TVA coal-ash impoundment failed in Tennessee.

The coal industry, which had promised its support, balked and insisted on deleting a mandate that state regulators review the emergency plans for adequacy. A Senate committee complied with the industry's demand. Backers of the bill then dropped their support because removing the review gutted the legislation.

None of the hundreds of bills under consideration in this session of the legislature are about dam safety.
Coal industry engineering and regulation have greatly improved since Buffalo Creek. But the best systems can fail. When they do, there's no substitute for early warning and a quick, coordinated response.

No one should have to die before Kentucky finally acts.

Read more here: http://www.kentucky.com/2012/02/26/2084404/in-case-of-dam-break-no-plan.html#storylink=cpy

40th Anniversary of the Buffalo Creek Disaster

40 years ago today the citizens of Buffalo Creek, West Virginia were covered in mud, sifting through the muddy wreckage for the bodies for of their loved ones. 125 people. One Hundred and Twenty-Five men, women, and children lost their lives because of coal industry greed. Pittston Coal company had built a substandard dam, quickly, efficiently, with the reduced overhead and increased profit in mind. The good people of Buffalo Creek paid the ultimate price for that greed, a greed that continues today. 4,000 people were left homeless and Pittston did nothing to help them. To help would mean admission of guilt and making it impossible to wash their hands of it as an Act of God. Nothing has changed in the coalfields. People must still worry about slurry impoundments and dams built more for profit and less for purpose. History is the great educator which teaches us not to repeat our mistakes. Many coalfield citizens are repeating them today by allowing such impoundments and large dams to be built and filled with water and slurry.

For more information on this terrible disaster follow this link....

The Battle of Blair Mountain

There is simply no way I could do justice to the Battle of Blair Mountain in a single post, or even an entire blog. It should be hailed as one of the most important civil uprisings ever to occur in United States history. I've always heard it said that labor unions were important at one time, even people whose political beliefs are vehemently anti-union. None can argue that the labor uprisings against "King Coal" for the betterment of safety and the end of script based pay systems was necessary in the Appalachian coalfields.


In many ways the Battle of Blair Mountain was our own Arab Spring in a day of similar oppression within the mountains of Appalachia. When I see what's going on in Syria, common people protesting, fighting for a better life with little way to defend themselves from being massacred by the Syrian military using it's advanced weaponry, I can't help but think of how our own government under the influence of the coal industry did the same. They used machine guns and even aerial bombing to suppress the people marching to Southern West Virginia, people who only wanted to bring safety, shorter working hours, and better wages to coal mining families who needed them.

Today the Battle of Blair Mountain continues. Arch Coal, Inc and their political allies are trying desperately to strip mine Blair Mountain. Doing so would successfully destroy all evidence of the machine gun nests and other weaponry used on regular citizens who sought to change a deeply corrupted system. The Friends of Blair Mountain are trying desperately to stop this from happening. Call West Virginia legislators and let them know our history is more important than coal profits! While your at it call Arch Coal, Inc at (314) 994-2700 and tell them what you think about it.

The Third Industrial Revolution & The Jobs We Need

In the past couple of weeks I've begun to hear about the Third Industrial Revolution. Last night I called into WMMT's Mountain Talk Radio and made a few comments on it but in my nervousness I was unable to do it justice. Today I received a message on Facebook from Peter, a good friend of mine with this video he's posted on the Dickenson County Discussion Board of Jeremy Rifkin explaining the need and the positive impacts a Third Industrial Revolution would have on our world. We need to get the fossil fuel giants out of the driver's seat and steer ourselves in a better direction.

Still a Great Song

I used to sing this a lot when I was off by myself working underground.