-Joe

When did I say I was against clean coal legislation? I clearly said that the same people who oppose coal are the same people who are against clean coal legislation. We want to make it cleaner but others stand in our way. I don’t think you will meet one person who is associated with mining that is against clean coal legislation. That is a rediculous accusation. Why do you think I’m in mining engineering? To improve a method or to stick with the old one? Wow, I still can’t even believe that you would say that. Why in the world would we be against clean coal? It is those who are in opposition that are against this legislation which is very frustrating considering they are the ones who are complaining and they don’t want to help us to do anything about it.

-Tex

Actually, an unsafe mine is not okay. They can pay hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines if they are unsafe. A slashed cable that hasn’t been taped is $1300 alone just to give you an idea. An unsafe mine cannot make a good profit for this reason.

And just like in any other industry, every employee cannot be regulated all the time.

By the way, I would say the same thing for the coal mine I worked at in northeast Texas. They were very people and safety oriented. They make up a large part of Texas’ power grid. Also, you can hardly compare Texas and Kentucky. Texas has immense land area to have enough room for the amount of wind turbines and solar panels that would be necessary to maintain the same energy usage. Kentucky, especially in the eastern part of the state, does not have this kind of area. Like I’ve said before though, the best place to out a wind turbine in Eastern Kentucky is on a reclaimed mountain top removal site.

The industry and its enablers would rather spread lies about renewable and alternative energy, to scare folks, rather than work constructively to promote something that is useful to society and would create jobs — but would also challenge Big Coal to stop doing business as usual.

ps- How’s that CO2 capture and storage going there? You guys in the coal industry have that up and running yet? It’s funny how whenever an underdeveloped energy technology that benefits the coal industry is proposed, it’s great! When an underdeveloped technology comes along that might compete with the industry — “Oh no!! We can’t have that!! It doesn’t work!”

I would invite anyone who is upset with the coal industry to contact the offices of Speaker Pelosi, and Senators Harry Reid and Barbara Boxer, to make sure that the coal industry don’t get too many handouts in the climate bill. Let’s incentivize cleaner, more sustainable energy. Natural gas can lead the way. So can wind, solar and nuclear.

Also, re: Kentucky being full of happy young professionals, compared to other states … whatever. Kentucky isn’t nationally competitive compared to other states. There’s no point in further arguing that, unless you have evidence to suggest that the other stats I mentioned above (education, health care and per capita income, and life expectancy) aren’t as poor in Kentucky compared to the rest of the nation as we both know them to be.

If you still feel in your blessed heart that Kentucky is just The Place to be for young professionals, look up and let me know how many Fortune 500 firms are there headquarted in Kentucky, compared to Texas, New York, California, Illinois, Florida, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania and my native Virginia. The entire state of Kentucky has only 2 more Fortune 500 firms headquartered there as the tiny District of Columbia.

Deborah: This isn’t France. A student petition isn’t going to change the mind of a committee of men who are the property of Big Coal. They have bigger things to worry about than peaceful, respectful whimpering by enfeebled people. It’s like going to a pimp and saying, “Here’s my petition. I’m being respectful. Please stop exploiting me.” You need to do more than that.

I’m not against natural resource industries. My grandfather was a logger. I’m against the lies that are being spread about coal by Big Coal and its supporters — and I’m against this PR blitz to suggest that coal is the energy source of the future. It’s the energy source of the 1830s. We can do better than this. We’re the most technologically advanced nation in the world, and yet some folks want us to rely on the same energy source as the Chinese do. We can send men to the moon, and transplant new faces onto people, and build computers that can literally make thousands of trillions of calculations a second, and yet the Chastitys of the world don’t think you can figure out alternative energy in Kentucky. Interesting.

And this is for all of you who choose to be obnoxious to one another rather than listening to and discussing opposing opinions, ideas or beliefs with open minds and respect for one anothe. Our future and the future of our children depends on what we do today. So, you all should take the time to educate yourselves properly and be a positive influence on the world around us, not be obnoxious, rash and a catalyst to further chaos and damage.

Tex: You say that you have been to Kentucky. So I am going to go with you are not a citizen of our state. You talk about California, New York and Texas embracing new energy technology. I don’t know how familiar you are with eastern Kentucky, but I am because I am a citizen of that part of the state, but we do not have a place to implement solar or wind energy like the other states mentioned. I also don’t think that “big coal” is the reason Kentucky doesn’t have “talented young professionals” flocking to this part of the nation. In fact, I think there are plenty of young professionals already in the state! As far as you stating, “I guess in life, some folks are always willing to sell their ass for a few dollars,” is ridiculous! They aren’t selling their ass or any of ours for that matter, they took a donation! People seriously have taken this a little too far! It was a DONATION of SEVERAL MILLION DOLLARS, respect the man and let him put COAL in the title. It is not oppressing us, it is simply honoring a request! It does not hold back progress or change the nation’s opinion of Kentucky!

Amy Shelton said, “As an alumnus of the university, I choose not to support my alma mater until the Board of Trustees can make decisions that project the values of academic discourse and independence.” Well I say, big deal. You choose not to support the university, so do Louisville fans and we don’t care! I would also like to know how the word “coal” has anything to do with the values of academics and independence! That is the most ridiculous statement I have ever heard, but then again it was found in the OPINIONS section of the paper!

@Mallory Miller: You’ll find in life that it usually isn’t worth it to shill for companies who don’t care about you. A safe mine, as you say, may be a productive mine, but you’ll find that an unsafe mine is okay too, in the eyes of Big Coal, so long as it’s making money for them.

You may be federally regulated, but as recent disasters have proven, being federal regulated and actually following those regulations isn’t quite the same thing, is it?

@Chris: Coal has done a lot for Kentucky, hasn’t it? The coal industry is why Kentucky is a national leader in education, health care, per capita income and life expectancy. Oh … wait …

Next time you visit your friends who go to law school @ UK, give them the option of taking the NY, DC or CA bar, with the offer of a job in NYC, San Fran or DC if they pass. Then offer them a job in Louisville if they pass the KY bar. Since the coal industry has made Kentucky an unbeatable option because of everything Big Coal has done for the state, I’m guessing the choice will be a no-brainer for most upwardly mobile young professionals.

I’m not denigrating Kentucky per se … I am saying, let’s not pretend that Big Coal has made Kentucky so great, compared to other places. Big Coal has set you back — and you have to either be jaded, naive, or getting a paycheck from the industry to not see that. California, for instance, is having a lot of problems, but it’s still a place where most talented young professionals want to be. Ditto New York. Ditto Texas. Incidently, these tend to be states that embrace new energy technologies, among other things. Yeah, Texas is the center of old energy in America, but it also leads the country, by a 3-1 margin over the 2nd place state, in installed wind energy capacity. When Texas is more progressive than you, you are truly backwards.

I’ve been to Kentucky. Parts of the state are very beautiful, especially the horse farms around Lexington. It’s too bad that your Board of Trustees are in the pocket of the industry. I guess in life, some folks are always willing to sell their ass for a few dollars.

-Nathan LeClaire

Endometriosis is a medical condition found in women where endometrial cells appear outside the uterus and cause serious pain. This is also linked with infertility. I have never seen any evidence that there is a correlation between working in or being around a coal mine and this disease. The primary causes are hereditary and large supplements of estrogen.

Also, I would like to ask Amy Thompson who told her that the Engineering Department was not a part of UK? I was unaware if this is the case. Both the mining building and the engineering complex are located on campus and I, along with every other engineering student here, pay tuition to attend the university.

-Jo Pulcini

I appreciate your impartial approach on the matter and would like to answer #3 directed towards coal supporters:

Coal mining does largely support engineering and research, not just athletics. We have recently received large donations for the renovation of our analytical lab and our design lab from Alliance Coal ( company for which Joe Craft is CEO and president) and Massey Energy. My scholarship is funded through coal companies and private donors with interests in coal.

Now back to web comments:

-Ezra Jack

Where would you like to put wind turbines in Eastern Kentucky?

-Layla Musselman and many others who believe that there are no students or representatives of the school who support coal and that the decision made is not representative of students’ interests:

A pole was shown in the Kernel today, the voters of which I am assuming are mostly students, where 41% were in favor of the decision. While this may not be the majority, it certainly is a substantial number of people from this university for people to be making the comment that the board acted with complete disregard of what the students want.

We depend on those smarter than ourselves to come up with figures that inform us that around 50% of the nation’s energy is generated from coal. That’s all forms of coal mining. While many protesting coal-related issues have opinions ranging from the total elimination of coal usage to the targeting of differing forms of destructive surface mining, many of us are concentrating the majority of our outrage against the MTR method and big coal’s direct and indirect oppression of mountain communities and culture. Figures also tell us that somewhere between six and seven percent of the nation’s coal energy originates from MTR. This is what I want to talk about here.

If, in fact, I am a part of the problem by having that connection to MTR coal, I must do something about it that eliminates my link. A constant effort at looking more deeply into the products I buy and use gets me straight to the heart of the relationship. Not doing this puts money in the opposition’s pocket, funds their lobbyists and attorneys, encourages them to keeping smiling behind my back, even if I’m at a protest screaming how much I can’t stand them.

This is what I say to them in hopes of helping wipe that smile of their face:

Dear Big Coal,

I’m a Kentuckian living in the middle of coal country, but I condemn your destructive, short-sighted practice of valley fill mining. You know this. You see our various forms of protest against it weekly in the news and try turning a blind eye to what you know will ultimately force you to halt this practice. Ironically, I’m also personally dependent on a certain amount of this coal to live in today’s world for I haven’t the means now to self-provide my power. This angers me since it puts you at a perceived advantage. As a Kentuckian, as a citizen of the United States, somewhere between six and seven percent of the coal energy I consume is from mountaintop removal coal. It’s probably much more than that.

So until you are forced at the state and federal level to do what you know you must, I must make changes to counteract your monetary and political advantage. I am further reducing my consumption of electricity by 10%, the thing you fear most. This will lessen my addiction to the supply flow you control. This will be a difficult undertaking, requiring the sacrifice of additional comforts. I will better understand products and services and companies that also use your coal and decrease my need upon them as well.

Though I am only one person, the two others I convince to do the same strengthen that effect. The others they influence, and so on, increase that rippling sentiment, and when it reaches you it will indeed effect your situation. Imagine a complete 10% or more decrease in our need of your product. Everyone in your supply line will feel it. They will be discomforted. Expect their increasing pressure on you, added to increased state and federal scrutiny that will regulate you out of business. It will not be a comfortable position to find yourself. And no increased production will outrun that inevitability.

You will say that with less consumption there is the risk of price inflation. Perhaps that’s true. It might trickle around like that but I’m pretty sure you do what you want. Most of us are not economists. We’re enlightened consumers in a world quickly destroying itself who realize that personal sacrifice must be made to counter-balance your stranglehold on commonsense.

You know all the efforts I can make that decrease my consumption already, don’t you? I’ll add this decrease to what I’m already conserving. And when I get accustomed to that I’ll decrease further, rendering you and your system as helpless as I used to feel.

Please do not associate the naming of the Wildcat Lodge the same as naming my house, that is a ridiculous! It also shames me to think that you are from Harlan County and do not understand the importance of coal and what it has done for your family.

So how do you have access to my ip address?

By the way ALICE: I know you are LYING as your anti coal supporter said, because I was UK Student! I have posted under that name and that is the only name I posted under beside my actual name (CHASITY GIBSON), so you are a little misinformed! I make no threats to anyone, but if I were going to, I assure you my full name would be beside it! I don’t really think what they were saying is a threat so much as opinions and facts! I actually posted under than name because of everyone saying few UK students were posting, so I take complete ownership for everything I said in that! And as far as us “coal industry people” resorting to name calling, I believe that your little anti coal friend above started with some name calling! Please don’t “dignify” any more responses to us, mainly because everything state isn’t fact, and we really don’t want to hear it!

I tell you about real world problems that my family faces in Eastern KY and your only response is to call me “stupid,” with a “head full of mush.”

The names of the poisons in my family’s drinking water? I don’t know them all – I don’t have the full water test in front of me. But arsenic and selenium are two of them.

Why do you keep telling me that I don’t know anything about the coalfields? Again – I’m *from* rural Harlan county and my family lives there today. I have family that work in mining industry.

Of course, once I tell you that, you immediately resort to threats, hiding behind fake names and anonymity.

“Jeff,” “UK dad,’ “Educated,” “UK Student,” “miner,” “Burn Coal !!!”, “Demopa5,” “Alice in Wonderland,” and “UK#1″ are all the same person with the same IP address, logging in from the same computer, and with the same vocabulary and arguments.

I’m not going to dignify you with any more responses.

I was born it coal country. I grew up in coal country. I now work in coal country. Show the facts and do not just recite what the Kentuckians for the commonwealth website tells. I can take you to streams in McCreary County where the coal outcrops and it runs “rusty orange.” In this area, there has never been any mining in the specific area. It is naturally occuring.

You show me good hard facts that coal mining will cause cancer and I will listen. In the mean time, do not call me a liar. You show no facts in your argument. You just emotionally recite what the KFTC and Sierra Club say.

Clay County has always been one of the poorest counties in the state and in the nation. It’s always had coal. It has never had an alternative. I fail to see your logic that coal somehow provides an economy that can’t be provided elsewhere. If coal left, counties wouldn’t collapse…they are already at ground zero

Your comments like the one to “Alice” don’t scare me, and it shouldn’t scare anyone against the radical and destructive practices of the coal industry. I’m Eastern KY born and bred. I completely and utterly disagree with you. Does that make me an outsider too?