Kennedy urges Ky. clean-up

Staff

Staff

By Roy York

The nephew of late environmentalist Sen. Edward “Ted” Kennedy attacked coal and other fossil fuels and called for an overhaul of the infrastructure and economic policy regarding energy production in the U.S. on Wednesday in Memorial Coliseum.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., chief prosecuting attorney for the Hudson Riverkeeper and president of Waterkeeper Alliance, spoke on campus and cited numerous problems with the current methods of producing energy in America. New regulations for energy companies, a national electric grid and a free market economy were solutions he offered to help fight global warming.

“It would cost $1.5 trillion to replace all carbon-based energy (in the U.S.),” Kennedy said.

A complete reconstruction of the American energy infrastructure has been criticized by opponents who have said the overhaul would destroy the economies of states dependent on fossil fuels.

Kennedy answered this opposition by comparing ending the use of fossil fuels to the abolishment of slavery in Great Britain 200 years ago. There was fear that abolishing slavery would kill the economy, but Kennedy said in the absence of forced labor, entrepreneurs appeared to fill the void.

“Every nation that has decarbonized its society has experienced massive economic growth,” he said.

Some students were not convinced that coal country would be able to escape a change unscathed.

“I think it will be harder for Kentucky than a lot of states,” said Sandy Broadus, a natural resource and conservation sophomore. “But I think it’s doable.”

In America, Kennedy said the way to fight job loss when converting to green energy was to employ Americans to build a national energy grid to be coordinated by the national government.

Kennedy said the funding would come from the money currently used to buy foreign oil and subsidies costs for domestic energy companies.

After energy can be transferred across the country, Kennedy said the next step would be to build green power plants and encourage homeowners to modify their homes to be self-sufficient for energy. When homes produce surplus energy, a free trade market would allow consumers to sell the excess back to energy companies.

“Every American becomes an energy entrepreneur and every home becomes a power plant,” Kennedy said.

The U.S. coal industry receives more than $1 trillion in subsidies to offset costs, Kennedy said, and the American people pick up the tab on costs such as roads topped with 22 inches of asphalt to handle overloaded coal transports.

But the costs are not limited to dollars and cents, he said.

According to the Environmental Protection Agency, every fresh water fish in America contains unsafe levels of mercury, which can cause permanent IQ loss in children born to mothers with high mercury levels due to coal pollution.

Kennedy said the problem stems from the fact that currently energy companies make more money with the more fossil fuels they burn.

“They still want consumers to leave their lights on all night and their refrigerator doors open.

“We’re protecting (the environment) because we recognize that the environment is the infrastructure to our community,” Kennedy said.