balancing the scales - June 2011

Change Service Requested

Kentuckians For The Commonwealth P.O. Box 1450 London, Ky. 40743

balancing the scales Volume 30 Number 4

June 22, 2011

Blair Mountain 90 years later pg. 10 Non-Profit U.S. Postage PAID Lexington, Ky. Permit No. 513

Inside...

Mountain Witness Tour provides perspective and insight

pg. 5

Stacy Branch residents claim a victory but continue to fight

pg. 8 Primary election suffers from lackluster voter turnout

pg. 14 Former Felon Voices: Jason Smith, Hardin County pg. 15 Renew East Kentucky campaign grows from years of work pg. 16

... Marching to preserve Blair Mountain history, abolish mountaintop removal, strengthen labor rights, and invest in sustainable job creation for all Appalachian communities.

Rep. Hal Rogers’ budget cuts target mothers and children pg. 18 And much more

balancing the scales, June 22 , 2011

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Executive Committee Corner Editor’s Note: Members of KFTC’s Executive Committee will be using this new “Executive Committee Corner” to share perspectives on such topics as how they became involved with KFTC, why they’ve stayed, or what aspects of particular issues hold special interest or significance for them.

by Sue Tallichet

Last month one of my academic colleagues took a seat in my office and looking at me rather sternly, asked, “Do you see yourself as an activist?” The question took me off guard because, as I told her, I was too busy working on issues to worry about how I appeared to others while doing so.

But the question forced me to pause and reflect on how I had gotten so involved, how immeasurably rewarding my work with KFTC has become and how the most important office you can ever hold is that of citizen.

I came to Kentucky in 1993 after being hired by Morehead State University teaching seminars in Appalachian sociology and doing research on women in underground coal mining.

For years I lectured about the injustices of the coal industry, especially its exploitation of workers and the stereotyping of Appalachian citizens, and what grassroots groups like KFTC were doing about it.

I learned as much from my students’ experiences as they learned from me, but the most inspiring among them was a red-headed firebrand named Joyce Wise.

As a result of class discussions, she joined the newly formed Rowan County KFTC Chapter and kept me abreast of the group’s progress practically until the day she died.

It was then I knew that the only way to honor Joyce and her work, her energy and her spirit was for me to do more than just talk about KFTC. It was high time for me to “walk the walk.”

During 2003 I started attending local chapter meetings. At first I felt ignorant and rather overwhelmed about local and state issues and knew relatively little about Kentucky’s political landscape. But it wasn’t long before fellow members brought me up to speed. Thereafter, agreeing to be the chapter’s publicity coordinator forced me to stay on top of issues.

Within two years I was meeting with other members of the statewide Land Reform Committee. I will never forget the moving personal stories I have heard from members such as Teri Blanton, Rick Handshoe, and Erica and Rully Urias. They spoke of death, destruction and the coal industry’s disregard for citizens’ health and well-being.

Perhaps even more dismaying is the complicity by state officials as coal companies continue to violate the rights of citizens. While all these issues have a factual basis, it was the human factor that fueled my own sense of mission and urgency.

Then last fall Doug Doerrfeld and Ted Withrow told me that Appalachian Voices had uncovered massive numbers of Clean Water Act violations in the reports that large surface mining companies had submitted to the Cabinet, and that KFTC was being asked to join in a series of lawsuits that would be unprecedented in the state. They were right.

Last fall KFTC joined Appalachian Voices, Waterkeeper Alliance, and Kentucky Riverkeepers to serve ICG and Frasure Creek mining companies with notices of our intent to sue them.

That action set into motion a series of legal actions by the companies and state officials to settle the matter in a “business as usual” manner by fining these companies less than one percent of possible state level penalties and keeping the litigation in state court. Fortunately, Franklin Circuit Judge Phillip Shepherd recognized our right to intervene against state officials’ actions and ordered us into mediation with these two coal companies.

Then this spring KFTC and our allies filed a lawsuit in federal court, against Nally and Hamilton, for similar violations of the federal Clean Water Act (CWA).

While there is much at stake in these cases and the outcomes remain to be seen, to date KFTC and its allies have gone public with their evidence that supports a pattern of CWA violations by the 1st, 2nd and 4th largest mountaintop removal coal mining companies in our state, and have exposed the lackluster enforcement of state officials.

We now have a legal basis for what we always knew was true about the threats of mountaintop removal mining to citizens’ health and well-being. No wonder Kentucky ranks the lowest in the nation on indicators of well-being. KFTC member Vanessa Hall said it best – if coal is so good for us, then why are we so poor, sick and depressed?

But stopping something doesn’t solve what was wrong. It begs for more progressive solutions. That’s the essential basis for New Power, which means creating new environmental, economic, and political solutions.

And as these debates about renewable energy, job creation and progressive politics rage across our nation, Kentucky is at the epicenter of that storm.

We are fighting the old power of the privileged among us to merely ensure the most basic of human rights of ordinary citizens, which requires us to do extraordinary things. That is who we are.

Each day, I learn just a little more from each of you, which makes KFTC my community, my religion. And when it’s my turn to be the voice of KFTC, I’m doing so while standing on the shoulders of giants.

On the cover: KFTC members Stanley Sturgill, Katey Lauer and Carl Shoupe after the rally on historic Blair Mountain in West Virginia. Lauer is the coordinator for The Alliance for Appalachia and was one of the many individuals who planned and carried out the historic march on Blair Mountain.

Photo provided by Pallavi Podapati

Kentuckians For The Commonwealth is a statewide grassroots social justice orga­­ni­ zation working for a new balance of power and a just society. KFTC uses direct-action organizing to accomplish the following goals: • foster democratic values • change unjust institutions • empower individuals • overcome racism and other discrimination • communicate a message of what is possible • build the organization • help people participate • win issues that affect the common welfare • have fun KFTC membership dues are $15 to $50 per year, based on ability to pay. No one is denied membership because of inability to pay.

Membership is open to anyone who is committed to equality, democracy and nonviolent change.

KFTC Steering Committee Steve Boyce, Chairperson Sue Tallichet, Vice-Chairperson Dana Beasley Brown, Secretary-Treasurer K.A. Owens, Immediate Past Chair Rick Handshoe, At-Large Member

Chapter Representatives

Rosanne Fitts Klarer, Scott County Erika Skaggs, Central Kentucky Ted Withrow, Rowan County Scott Goebel, Northern Kentucky Mary Love, Jefferson County Meredith Wadlington, Bowling Green & Friends Carl Shoupe, Harlan County Truman Hurt, Perry County Megan Naseman, Madison County Patty Amburgey, Letcher County Beverly May, Floyd County Cari Moore, Knott County Vanessa Hall, Pike County Alternates: Matt Doolin, Matt Heil, Lisa Bryant, Antonio Mazzaro, Martha Flack, Sandi Joiner, Stanley Sturgill, McKinley Sumner, Steve Wilkins, Jeff Chapman-Crane, Bobby Hicks, and Erica Urias.

Kentuckians For The Commonwealth P.O. Box 1450 London, Kentucky 40743-1450 606-878-2161 Fax: 606-878-5714 info@kftc.org www.kftc.org balancing the scales is published by Kentuckians For The Commonwealth and mailed third class from Lexington, Kentucky.

Reader contri­butions and letters to the editor should be sent to 250 Southland Drive Suite #4, Lexington, KY. 40503 or tim@kftc.org.

Subscriptions are $20 per year.

balancing the scales, June 22 , 2011

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Table of Contents

KFTC Offices and Staff

Executive Committee Corner

page 2

Letter to the Editor Capping payday lending is only fair

page 3

Member Commentary Mountain Witness Tour provides perspective and insight

page 5

Local Updates Third Louisville Loves Mountains festival is “FUN”draising Jefferson County chapter to host member exchange Localizing a statewide campaign Eastern Kentucky residents experiencing new water damage Stacy Branch residents claim a victory but continue to fight Madison County chapter breaks fundraising goal; Berea Fairness Harlan County members work with allies across state lines

page 5 page 5 page 6 page 7 page 8 page 9 page 12

Canary Project Update Blair Mountain 90 years later Chapman-Crane works with people of faith for healthy air

page 10 page 13

Voting Rights Update Primary election suffers from lackluster voter turnout Members begin to prepare for Fancy Farm political festivities Former Felon Voices: Jason Smith, Hardin County Voting Rights Coalition sets plans in motion for 2012

page 14 page 14 page 15 page 15

Renew East Kentucky Update Renew East Kentucky campaign grows from years of work Floyd County members look forward to collaborating with Big Sandy

page 16 page 17

Kentucky Sustainable Energy Alliance Update Green housing summit unites Kentucky Sustainable Energy Alliance Update KySEA prepares to advance work in 2012 legislative session

KySEA Brief: Energy Efficiency Portfolio Standards

page 17 page 18 page 18 page 18

Economic Justice Update Rep. Hal Rogers’ budget cuts target mothers and children

page 19

Calendar

page 20

Letter to the Editor

Capping payday lending is only fair Dear Editor,

During the last legislative session, several members of Kentuckians For The Commonwealth as part of the Kentucky Coalition for Responsible Lending met with state legislators to persuade them to support a bill that would cap the interest rate on Payday Lenders at 36 percent per annum.

We were told more than once that the industry claimed that such a cap would effectively put them out of business and prove to be even more of a burden on the poor, who depend on Payday Lenders to get ready cash and even cash their personal checks.

One legislator even suggested that we come up with alternatives to Payday Lenders and that doing so would improve the prospects of legislators supporting an interest rate cap.

The 36 percent annual rate that KFTC supports is not a new or a radical solution to the problem of excessive interest rates charged by Payday Lenders, whose current method of charging interest can result in rates up to 400

percent a year.

Other states have already imposed such caps and at considerably lower rates than the proposed 36 Percent.

Ohio caps the interest rate at 28 percent, yet Payday Lenders continue to operate in the state.

Maryland capped interest rates at 33 percent and devised an alternative to the predatory practices of Payday Lenders. The state instituted a Borrow and Save program that offers the poor low cost loans between $300 and $1,000 at a rate of 7.99 percent, which is much cheaper than credit cards or Payday Lenders. Borrowers have to participate in one financial literacy course and open a savings account.

The practices of Payday Lenders have become so lucrative that they are now being adopted by major financial institutions and banks. I personally received a letter from Fifth Third Bank advertising their version of payday loans. The charge was $10 per $100, but no annual interest rate was quoted anywhere in their letter. Wells Fargo and U.S. Bank also have developed similar types of loans

MAIN OFFICE Morgan Brown, Robin Daugherty & Burt Lauderdale P.O. Box 1450 London, Kentucky 40743 606-878-2161 Fax: 606-878-5714 info@kftc.org

FIELD OFFICES Louisville

Berea

Jessica George, Jerry Hardt, Colette Henderson and Nancy Reinhart 901 Franklin Street Louisville, Ky 40206 502-589-3188

Teri Blanton 118 Baugh Street Berea, Ky. 40403 859-986-1648

Whitesburg Willa Johnson, Tanya Turner, and Colleen Unroe P.O. Box 463 Whitesburg, Ky 41858 606-632-0051 Berea Lisa Abbott, Amy Hogg, Carissa Lenfert, Sara Pennington and Kevin Pentz 140 Mini Mall Drive Berea, KY 40403 859-986-1277

Central Kentucky Tim Buckingham, Jessica Hays Lucas, Erik Hungerbuhler, Brittany Hunsaker, Heather Roe Mahoney, Dave Newton, John Malloy and Ondine Quinn 250 Plaza Drive Suite 4 Lexington, Ky 40503 859-276-0563 Northern Kentucky Joe Gallenstein 859-380-6103 Floyd County Brittany Combs 606-422-0100

e-mail any staff member at firstname@kftc.org except for Jessica Hays Lucas use jessicabreen@kftc.org and Brittany Hunsaker use brittanyh@kftc.org

that they are marketing.

It is hard to see how these types of lending practices are defensible. They prey on the poor and most desperate of our people for no other reason than they are poor and do not have access to more reasonable forms of credit. It puts them on a treadmill of borrowing from which it becomes more and more difficult to escape the longer they participate, and eventually will drive the consumer into bankruptcy.

As for industry claims that they need usurious interest rates to stay in business, it is tantamount to suggesting that in order to help the poor, those they “help” must first agree to submit to outright robbery by their benefactor.

A business that must rob its clients in the long run in order to help them in the immediate present is not a business that ethically or legally should be allowed to operate.

Jeff Hampton Piner, Kentucky

KFTC

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30 Anniversary th

KFTC turns 30 in August. We’re recalling some of the history of KFTC and the people involved in each issue of balancing the scales in 2011.

In the last two issues we looked at some “pre-history” that set the stage for KFTC’s formation in 1981. In this and the next issue we’ll look at the first fews meetings with the original founders of KFTC as they explored the need for a group that addressed the injustices identified in the Appalachian Land Ownership Study.

“Does a coalition of groups, organizations and/or individuals, organized within the coal region or statewide, to work on land ownership issues through the tax issue, make sense for Kentucky?”

That unwieldy question was one that 10 individuals came together to explore at a meeting in Berea on June 25, 1981.

The folks all knew each other. They had a history of working in the Appalachian coalfields around land, housing, community service and environmental issues.

They also had a connection to the Appalachian Land Ownership Study, recently completed by the Appalachian Alliance. That study documented who owned the land and who paid the taxes in 80 counties in six Appalachian states, including 12 counties in eastern Kentucky where coal is mined.

It found that much of the land, and even more of the mineral rights, were owned by absentee corporations, and that for the most part this vast property wealth was under-assessed and under-taxed. As a result, the local tax base for eastern Kentucky communities – needed to support schools and other local government services – was being cheated of tens of millions of dollars in revenue.

These injustices were deliberate. The 1978 General Assembly had specifically exempted unmined coal from property taxation. Since the Kentucky constitution requires that all property be fairly assessed and taxed, lawmakers created this exemption by making the tax rate so low – $.001 versus $.315 per $100 of value for other property – that tax assessors didn’t even bother to send out tax bills.

This was a political tradeoff by then Gov. Julian Carroll, in order to increase the coal severance tax from 4 percent to 4.5 percent. Severance tax revenue went into the

balancing the scales, June 22 , 2011 state general fund, with some of it being sent back to counties where coal was mined.

The property tax was a primary source of income for local governments and schools, and it was severely undercut by this tradeoff.

That situation is what helped give the early coalition its initial focus on tax and community services issues.

The participants at the June 25 meeting primarily represented organizations that were working on a regional basis on a variety of issues. They included the Appalachian Research and Defense Fund, Kentucky Rivers Coalition (which became the Kentucky Resources Council), the Highlander Center in Tennessee (which had coordinated the Appalachian land study), the Appalachian Alliance, Council of Southern Mountains, and Appalachian Coalition.

While helping to give their unnamed coalition their initial goals and a focus on tax policy changes, they also realized a lot of other people needed to be around the table. They made a list and set another meeting for July 20 in Hazard.

As part of the outreach to local citizens, Joe Childers, coordinator of the Kentuckychapterof the land ownership study, and others visited groups like the Concerned Citizens of Martin County and An early meeting in Leslie County where Joe Childers (standing) Citizens Organized talked about the Appalachian Land Ownership Study. Others at t o P ro t e c t t h e the table are Joe Szakos (left), then a field organizer with the Environment Appalachian Alliance, David Rubenstein with the Appalachian (COPE) in Harlan Research and Defense Fund, and local citizen Raleigh Adams.

County to explain the findings of the study. The Martin County group was already starting to challenge tax injustices after some other initial successes. Land ownership and tax issues were not as familiar to COPE members.

“When Childers came, that was a turning point in COPE’s focus,” said J.D. Miller.

“After his presentation, we began looking seriously at the deeper, underlying issues related to land and mineral ownership in Appalachia, and to talk about what we could do.”

Looking Back …

25 Years Ago …

15 Years Ago …

• A new KFTC chapter forms in Morgan County when residents discover that a company wants to build a hazardous waste incinerator there. The plant was never built.

• The Steering Committee votes to open a new office and hire an organizer for western Kentucky to work with emerging chapters there.

• KFTC members and the Center for Responsive Politics team up for a two-day media tour, meeting with 7 major media outlets to talk about campaign finance reform.

20 Years Ago …

• Jefferson County members present a solid waste management plan to the city of Louisville, focusing on source reduction, recycling and composting rather than incineration.

• KFTC holds its annual Spring Picnic at Cave Run Lake, making this one a “no waste” event.

• The Pocahontas Corp. turns over a check for $296,000 to Martin County officials, representing “the first clear victory of the long-term battle of progressive elements in the coalfields to hold the major absentee landowners responsible for paying their fair share of the cost of sustaining the government in the coal counties,” reported the East Kentucky Sun.

10 Years Ago …

• One hundred people attend a public hearing in Madisonville about controls on confined animal feeding operations, or factory farms. Western Kentucky members were part of efforts to protect rural communities from an influx of CAFOs due to lax environmental controls.

• Rowan County members challenge a new and unneeded interstate connector road that would cut through the middle of the largest unpaved tract of the Daniel Boone National Forest in the county.

5 Years Ago …

• Montgomery Creek (Perry County) residents are angry when state officials label as “frivolous” their petition to declare 218 acres off-limits to strip mining.

Residents in Eolia (Letcher County) are victorious when a coal company withdraws plans for a valley fill that would have buried two miles of streams.

• KFTC members use the May primary elections for many local, Noxious odors, infestations of rodents state and federal offices to focus on and water pollution had members in issues ranging from air quality to western Kentucky organizing for controls restoration of voting rights to the on hog and chicken factory farms near minimum wage to mountaintop their homes. removal.

balancing the scales, June 22 , 2011

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Member Commentary

Mountain Witness Tour provides perspective and insight

by Julie Yoder

Mountaintop removal coal mining is the issue that first brought me to KFTC five years ago. Since then I’ve learned about all the other wonderful campaigns that KFTC members are working on, but mountaintop removal remains one of the issues I am most passionate about.

Not only am I a KFTC member but I am also an artist, and I continue to struggle to express my feelings about mountaintop removal through my art.

Because of this struggle I felt it was important to go on a mountain witness tour in eastern Kentucky. I wanted to better understand the issue so that I could express my concerns more clearly and hopefully contribute more positively to the fight.

Thus, earlier this spring, myself and several other artists from Louisville and Lexington took a van to Whitesburg in

Letcher County to witness the impact of mountaintop removal coal mining firsthand.

Seeing the destruction is important, of course, but far more important, I learned, was gaining a better understanding of the deep complexities of the issue. It’s not just big coal companies vs. the little people whose homes are being destroyed. It’s not just the Friends of Coal vs. environmentalists.

This issue is complicated because the folks living in eastern Kentucky who are trying to fight mountaintop removal are also trying to live in a community, and that community is made up of people whose livelihoods depend on coal, whose friends and family have a long history of coal mining.

I already understood these things on a philosophical level, of course, but I didn’t grasp the full impact until I got a chance to talk to some of the members living in the coalfields.

I didn’t really understand until I got there that despite our best intentions, our group could be perceived as outsiders coming in to judge a group of people without really understanding their community, or worse, focusing on the environmental impact without thinking of the community at all.

At the end of the day we would be able to drive home with no repercussions, but it was the wonderful people who took the time to talk to us who might face dirty looks or even harassment after we left.

I’m glad I took this tour, and I’m grateful to the people who shared with us about their lives and their efforts to

revitalize their community.

I came to realize that for those of us living outside of Appalachia, speaking out and raising awareness is not enough.

We need to learn how to be better allies to our friends in Appalachia by understanding and respecting the heritage and history of the region, and by being aware of how we are all interconnected.

There is no simple solution to ending mountaintop removal coal mining, but the more we can all understand the complexities of not just the environmental, but also social and economic issues that surround mountaintop removal coal mining, the better we can all work toward positive change in eastern Kentucky.

Jefferson County chapter to host member exchange

The Jefferson County Chapter is planning a Member Exchange with members in eastern Kentucky this summer. If you’re interested, contact Jefferson County Chapter Organizer Colette Henderson at colette@kftc.org or call 502-589-3188.

Third Louisville Loves Mountains festival is “FUN”draising

On May 20, the Jefferson County Chapter in partnership with Carmichael’s Bookstore and Heine Brothers’ Coffee hosted the Third Annual Louisville Loves Mountains Festival.

The festival’s primary objective is to spread awareness around the issue of mountaintop removal coal mining. In the past the festival has hosted local and regional authors and musicians.

Members of the Louisville Drum Corps brought the party with them again this year.

This year ’s festival keynote was Kentucky author Wendell Berry. His address was covered eloquently by the official Louisville Loves Mountains live blogger and KFTC member Laura Read.

“Taking a historical perspective, Berry reminded us that our people are not strangers to a forced economy,” Read wrote. “Harkening back to his grandfather’s days as a tobacco farmer, coming up empty handed after growing crops for the government, Berry elucidated the harsh reality of today’s coal economy; forced upon people who need work to feed their families, stifling out local economies through purchasing power and industry, and rapidly crippling the biodiversity of the Appalachian region.

“Berry highlighted the importance of cultivating local food economies and employing smaller operations to sustain industries such as forestry; economies that are both fiscally stable and socially responsible. I’m paraphrasing, but Berry pointed out that people shouldn’t have to destroy their own homes in order to live where they are … A point especially important for all of us to remember in Louisville, as we enjoy the luxury of a rich local economy.”

The festival was a huge success with

Wendell Berry spoke to a packed and enthusiastic crowd at the street festival. more than 800 in attendance. All vendors were local and generously donated proceeds of their sales to KFTC’s work.

In total, the festival raised almost $7,000 and resulted in 52 new members.

Sally Campbell, author of Saving Kentucky, donated proceeds from the sale of her book, a total of $5,000, at the

festival (see ad on page 16).

Chapter members send a huge thank you to the amazing network of local businesses, members, and friends that make this event possible every year.

Read’s blog can be read in full at www.kftc.org/llm

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balancing the scales, June 22 , 2011

Local Updates

Localizing a statewide campaign: Central Kentucky chapter works with city officials to support voting rights for former felons

KFTC’s statewide campaigns have various points for members to plug into the work. The campaign to restore voting rights to former felons is no different.

You do not have to be a former felon, or even know someone who is. You can go to Frankfort during the General Assembly to lobby or can participate in awareness raising events like Singing For Democracy or letter writing parties.

In addition to those efforts, the Central Kentucky KFTC chapter has launched a local campaign focusing on educating urban county council members about voting rights and to urge them to take action on the matter.

While Lexington’s city council does not have the authority to restore voting rights to former felons, they do have the power to pass a resolution (a formal expression of opinion or intention) stating that they believe it is good for Kentucky and good for democracy to immediately restore the right to vote to former felons who have served their debt to society.

A public statement could be very powerful and have a positive impact on folks who are still unsure about the issue.

Chapter members recently had their first lobby meeting with Lexington’s Vice-Mayor Linda Gorton.

Their purpose was to talk to her about KFTC’s work over the last six years around voting rights and to share with

her some of their ideas about working with the city council on the issue.

Members reported that it was an incredibly productive meeting and gave the chapter some very clear next steps, including how to talk to council members about the issue, how to prioritize those conversations and the process for getting a resolution passed in Lexington.

Members also learned that Lexington was the first city in Kentucky to pass a fairness ordinance and the first city to pass a public smoking ban.

The KFTC members shared several personal stories with Gorton to help her understand the impact of denying voting rights to former felons who have paid their debt.

Abigail Dority talked about how her brother served part of his prison sentence in Kentucky and actually petitioned to have his parole served in Wisconsin, where he would be able to vote.

Latanya Torp spoke about her neighbors on Ohio Street in north Lexington who don’t get involved in community activism because they’re former felons and feel excluded from society.

The vice-mayor mentioned several times how much she appreciates how KFTC will work to educate people like herself, and jokingly said in reference to KFTC members, “Get out of the way, here they come.”

I want to help KFTC build power!

Over the summer the chapter will continue to meet with Lexington council members to discuss the formation of a formal resolution and to begin to educate

council members before a vote is held.

If you’re interested in getting involved please contact local organizer Ondine Quinn at ondine@kftc.org or 859-276-0563.

Special Summer Offer:

20% off Deep Down for KFTC Students & Teachers!

The makers of Deep Down, an award-winning PBS documentary that follows the inspiring journey of KFTC’s Floyd County chapter to stop a mountaintop removal site, are offering KFTC members specially priced educational DVDs for campus and classroom screenings!

“I wish everybody in America could see this film.”

-Silas House, NEH Chair in Appalachian Studies at Berea College

Deep Down has successfully screened on more than 100 college campuses nationwide. Educational copies of the film allow you to use the film for a public screening and to store it in your school’s library for future use – a great educational tool in the fight to end MTR!

PLAN NOW to bring Deep Down and the work of KFTC to your school this Fall!

Request a code for a 20% discount on your copy of Deep Down by sending an email with the subject line “Discount” to:

sally@deepdownfilm.org

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balancing the scales, June 22 , 2011

Local Updates

Eastern Kentucky residents experiencing new water damage from an increase in natural gas drilling and fracking process

Natural gas drilling has been building into a giant industry in the United States for decades. But with the growing appetite for energy “independence” some communities are being bombarded with increased activities to extract this natural resource.

During the recent Bush administration, natural gas drilling became exempt from portions of some federal laws that are meant to protect the environment and people, including the “Halliburton Loophole” that is now part of the Safe Drinking Water Act.

All of this has resulted in a situation that feels to many like an urgent push for energy extraction and few safeguards to protect the public and the environment.

Letcher County is one of the counties in Kentucky feeling the impact of the growing push for more natural gas extraction.

In the fall of 2010, chapter members decided they wanted to learn more on the issue. Commercials on TV bragged about natural gas being one of the cleanest ways to generate energy, and yet they kept hearing neighbors talking about the struggles they were having protecting their land and water since the gas companies had moved in.

One of the first steps the chapter took to learn more was to host a meeting in the McRoberts community. Several folks from the area attended and gave history of the small town that was built

Gas lines, which are supposed to be buried, lay on top of the ground crossing a person’s land.

by the coal companies.

Much of the land there is still owned by the coal companies. People live in the valleys that are at the foot of the mountains, but do not own the mountains.

Since the mountains are owned by the coal companies, in the 1990s residents were forced to live with strip mining at their back door. Now the coal companies lease the land to the natural gas companies.

Members were told of how there were gas wells all over the mountain sides, how the dust from the drilling would cover their communities and that sometimes they could smell the gas.

During this discussion members discovered that the drillers in Letcher County use a different process than do most drillers in the country.

When the drillers reach the underground level that contains the natural gas they use a practice that the industry calls “fracking” (fracturing) to fracture the gas-bearing rock strata to get the gas to flow out more easily.

Most drilling in the U.S. uses hydraulic fracking, which pumps hundreds of gallons of water and a chemical mix and sand into the bore hole at great pressure to cause the rock to fracture.

The sand in the mixture helps those fractures stay open once the fluid is pumped back out.

However, in Letcher County, nitrogen fracking is the preferred method of the industry.

Not as much water is used. Instead a mixture of chemicals and nitrogen is used. Since the industry isn’t by law required to share what their mixture of chemicals is, it has been difficult to learn much about this practice.

WMMT (the radio station hosted out of Appalshop) received a grant to begin a radio research project to study the impact of natural gas in Letcher County, Kentucky and Wise County, Virginia.

KFTC members collaborated with them to learn more about how community members in the area were feeling.

While in McRoberts they saw a gas drill that was 100 feet behind a row of homes.

Once a drill begins it may go non-stop for 2-3 weeks, day and night.

Very few of the residents in front of the drill who had to deal with the major-

Land Owner’s Rights

Gas storage tanks in Letcher County. ity of the noise would speak. But up the street members sat on the front porch with an elderly woman who told them that a year ago when they drilled near her house something went wrong.

She said they started to smell something strong outside. The gas well was near her vegetable garden and when she went over her plants were wilting and dying. She called and made several complaints before the company returned to fix the problem.

From there the members walked up the road to where the water plant is for the McRoberts, Neon and Hemphill communities.

Just 100-200 feet away from their water source were two gas wells. Just a couple months later the three communities lost their water unexpectedly, and had to have water brought in.

One thing that became clear was that people were frustrated, but had no idea if they had any rights to fight the company.

WMMT was already planning to work on a website with information about drilling, so they dedicated a page from their site For Landowners. Some information on the www.fracturedappalachia.org website is information like:

Does a well operator have the right to use the surface of the land if the gas is owned by one person and the surface is owned by another?

The right to use the surface is often found in the language of any deed or lease that transferred the rights to produce the gas or oil to a person other than the surface owner. If the (continued on next page)

Someone has approached me about drilling on my land. What should I do?

Promptly consult an attorney trusted by yourself or others who knows oil and gas law. If you don’t know one, contact the local bar association for assistance.

What is a lease?

A mineral lease is a contractual agreement between the owner of a mineral tract (the lessor) who grants the right to mine or extract the mineral to a producer (the lessee). Oil and gas can be sold or leased separately to different parties. Usually, a lessee will insist on the right to sell or reassign a mineral lease to another party. Because a mineral lease gives the lessee a property interest in the mineral, leases should be recorded at the county clerk’s office of the county where the lease is located.

A lease is usually secured by annual payments, or a royalty on production, paid to the lessor.

I own the surface, someone else owns the gas or oil, and a driller is looking over my land. What should I do?

• Promptly consult an attorney who knows oil and gas law. If you don’t know one, contact the local bar association for assistance.

• Try to work with the driller on the location of the facilities – well site, access road, gathering pipeline, etc.

• Negotiate a reasonable price for damage to crops, cropland, timber, etc., before clearing work begins at the well site.

• Request that the well operator pay for a certified lab to analyze any source of water used as a water supply for people, animals or crops before drilling begins.

This is to document the pre-drill conditions in case the water supply would be adversely affected by drilling the oil or gas well. If the oil and gas operator declines to perform this pre-drilling survey of your water supply, consider hiring a laboratory approved by the Environmental Protection Agency at your expense.

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balancing the scales, June 22 , 2011

Local Updates

Stacy Branch residents claim a victory but continue to fight

Shortly after the last issue of balancing the scales, more than a dozen residents of Stacy Branch (Perry County) gathered at two separate locations near the proposed mine site to talk with their Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) concerning a pending LEECO mountaintop removal coal mining permit area.

From locations in Perry and Knott counties, local residents gathered to share their stories and concerns with the Region 4 EPA on a one-hour conference call

Residents living around the proposed 849 acres, six valley fills, and over 4 miles of streams included in the proposed mine permit showed up to tell Gwendolyn Keyes Fleming, Region 4 Administrator, and her staff why this mine does not belong in their community and insist she come see for herself.

Several long time members from the area converged at both locations with local neighbors and friends. Many were new to KFTC and new to organizing, but all were experts in their community needs and visions.

These courageous residents came from and represented families from the head of Stacy Branch in Perry County all the way to the far reaches of Lotts Creek in Knott County.

Pam Maggard, a special education teacher of Sassafras, could not be at the call so she submitted a letter, which was read in her absence. The letter touches on the spectrum of issues weighing

heavy on hearts and minds:

Ms. Fleming, Please accept the invitation of Cordia, Stacy’s Branch, and Sassafras residents to visit our area.

You will see first hand the life we are trying to protect. I am very concerned about damage from blasting near my home (approx. 1 mile). Potential flooding is another concern.

I am confident the EPA will want to continue their new commitment to putting clean water and health above mining profits I understand the EPA asked LEECO to make some changes to its permit, to reduce anticipated water quality impacts and monitor stream quality and LEECO refused. This is typical of what we must deal with in the area. Profits before people.

That is how we are treated - “Oh, they’re not rich, they don’t matter.

We did it before, let’s get the rest of the coal.”

We do matter. My neighbors and I are tax paying, modest income to poor people. I have worked hard to own a home. The coal trucks from the last mining in the area have wreaked havoc on our roads and water lines. We can’t take much more I implore you to at least come and see for yourself. Pictures and letters cannot even begin to tell the story.

Drilling and fracking problems grow (continued from previous page) terms of a deed or lease do not describe how the surface may be used, then the gas or oil owner has reasonable use of the surface to produce the gas or oil.

Some deeds or leases set out payments for or limits on use of the surface. Other deeds give the gas or oil operator full rights to reasonable use of the surface.

There are many more questions and answers like this on the site. WMMT also has plans to host public forums in the future inviting folks out to discuss the issue.

As for KFTC’s role, the Letcher County chapter is dedicating its summer

to talking to folks all over the county about the condition of their water. Some folks have poor water quality because of natural gas drilling, while others suffer at the hands of mining, logging and negligence.

Another piece that the chapter would like to begin is to create a pamphlet to mail to communities when natural gas companies start to take over, informing everyone of their rights and ways to get more information.

If you would like to learn more about this issue check out www.fracturedappalachia.org. You can also help by contacting your elected representatives and reminding them that natural gas companies should not be exempt from the laws that are meant to protect the land and people.

What is Environmental Justice?

That’s a great question! In regards to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), it actually refers more to the people and communities and less to the physical environment.

The EPA defines Environmental Justice as “the fair treatment and meaningful involvement of all people regardless of race, color, national origin, or income with respect to the development, implementation, and enforcement of environmental laws, regulations, and policies. EPA has this goal for all communities and persons across this nation. It will be achieved when everyone enjoys the same degree of protection from environmental and health hazards and equal access to the decision-making process to have a healthy environment in which to live, learn, and work.”

This definition and component of the EPA’s work is especially important in KFTC’s Canary work, from extraction in east Kentucky to the burning of coal in Louisville and beyond.

Come and visit with us - see it with your own eyes - then help us stop LEECO - for our water, homes, and health!

Knowing the EPA’s primary concern is with water quality and environmental justice, residents were relieved to hear Keyes Fleming say, at the end of the call, she would be contacting Lisa Garcia at EPA headquarters about a possible Environmental Justice tour through Kentucky. Read the sidebar for more information about EPA and environmental justice.

The EPA is still reviewing LEECO’s application to dump mining wastes into local streams, but this community has already had quite an impact on their decision on Residents in Knott County are used to living with the this permit. problems that come with mountaintop removal coal

Since the initial call mining. Above a children’s playground sits below was held, a KFTC action a mountaintop removal site at Carr Creek Lake in alert, and a balancing the 2007. scales article, a revised cerns about it.” proposal has emerged from LEECO

This isn’t the visit the community is with only 1 valley fill (instead of 6) and asking for, or a denial of the permit, but 100 less acres to be mined. it is a great start and could even be seen

On top of that, some EPA officials as something of a victory. are still unhappy with the permit be From writing letters, talking to cause “the community has serious con(continued on next page)

balancing the scales, June 22 , 2011

Page

Local Updates

Madison County chapter breaks fundraising goal; members work with allies to raise awareness for Berea Fairness

On a beautiful June day in Madison County, the local KFTC chapter held their annual Spring “Friend-Raiser.”

More than 125 KFTC members and friends came out to HomeGrown HideAways (homegrownhideaways.org), a gorgeous farm outside of Berea, to spend time together and celebrate all of the hard work that KFTC does yearround.

Members ate a delicious potluck dinner, danced to live bluegrass music from the Blind Corn Liquor Pickers, had fun outbidding each other on a silent auction that raised money for KFTC, and some younger members even

played around in the nearby creek.

The silent auction was bigger and better than ever. KFTC members donated everything from an inoculated mushroom log to a tattoo from a local tattoo shop. There were also a live duck and chicken, a local band offering their song-writing services, home-made goods, and so much more!

The chapter even broke its previous chapter fundraising records by bringing in more than $1,000 from the single event and gained dozens of new members.

FAIRNESS

Chapter members have been active

KFTC member Jason Howard spoke at a June 9 press conference with Berea citizens, KFTC members, and allies in attendance. The groups gathered united under the name Bereans For Fairness. The citizens are working to make Berea the fourth city in Kentucky to adopt a Fairness ordinance.

Happy Birthday KFTC 30 Years of Action For Justice!

Save-the-Date August 27, 2011

in a local campaign to bring a Fairness Ordinance to Berea. KFTC joined a strong coalition of local business leaders, faith leaders, students and community groups in standing up and speaking out for fairness.

Similar to legislation passed in Covington, Lexington and Louisville, a Berea Fairness Law would prohibit discrimination in employment, housing and public accommodations based on someone’s perceived sexual orientation or gender identity.

“This is a law that we really need,” said Berea KFTC member Jason How-

ard. “If this is passed by the city council, Berea would become only the fourth city in Kentucky to have this (fairness ordinance). Fairness is a family value, fairness is a religious value and fairness is a Berea value.”

KFTC members and others in the coalition have been organizing to get a good presence at public forums held by the city council and written comments submitted to the council as well.

A vote is likely to occur sometime this summer. KFTC members plan to keep organizing until they win the fairness for Bereans!

(continued from previous page) neighbors, forwarding action alerts, making phone calls, mailing artwork, and now speaking directly to the EPA, members, friends, and distant allies have absolutely made a lasting impact on this permit decision and perhaps even future permits in communities seeking equal environmental protection and justice.

An Environmental Justice tour could impact how the Clean Water Act is enforced in east Kentucky moving forward and the future of true environmental justice in our communities

Please continue this journey for justice by contacting Gwendolyn Keyes Fleming, EPA Region 4 Administrator

and Lisa Garcia, Environmental Justice.

Let Keyes Fleming and Garcia know these communities appreciate their attention and willingness to listen.

However, an Environmental Justice tour in east Kentucky and in these communities is crucial to the EPA’s decision on LEECO permit #897-0480 and future protection under the Clean Water Act. The future of Stacy’s Branch and Lotts Creek should not be sacrificed.

Encourage Keyes Fleming and Garcia to visit and, as Pam Maggard stated to “continue their new commitment to putting clean water and health above mining profits.”

Stacy Branch wants EPA tour

ACTION Needed: Environmental Justice Tour Needed in Eastern Kentucky EPA officials need to strengthen their resolve to protect the community by enforcing the Clean Water Act. Please send a message in support of local residents’ request asking EPA officials to come visit Stacy’s Branch and neighboring Lotts Creek before they make a decision on Leeco permit #897-0480.

Send your message to: Gwendolyn Keyes Fleming EPA Region 4 Administrator Atlanta Federal Center 61 Forsyth Street, SW Atlanta, GA 30303-3104 404-562-8357 keyesfleming.gwendolyn@epa.gov

Lisa Garcia Environmental Justice USEPA Headquarters Ariel Rios Building 1200 Pennsylvania Avenue, N. W. Mail Code: 1101A Wash, DC 20460 202-564-1259 garcia.lisa@epa.gov

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balancing the scales, June 22 , 2011

Canary Project Update

Blair Mountain 90 years later – unions, labor and citizens fight to protect the historical site and a better future for Appalachia

Ninety years ago, 10,000 coal miners marched on Blair Mountain in West Virginia to fight for workers’ rights and their union. This was the largest armed, working-class uprising in the United States. These miners were met by industry gun thugs whom they battled, and by their own government that dropped bombs on the miners.

The march on Blair Mountain was the first time the U.S. government had brought arms against its own people.

The battle for Blair Mountain ensued, killing and wounding many, and exposing the industry’s contempt for union and labor rights.

Fast-forward to Blair in early June 2011 and one could witness the same struggle occurring again, 90 years later.

People from all over came to Marmet, WV to march on Blair Mountain – to preserve it, to fight to abolish mountaintop removal coal mining, to strengthen labor rights, and to fight for an investment in sustainable job creation for all Appalachian communities.

This time it was not only miners who strapped up their boots. It was citizens from all over the community, environmental groups and labor unions including the United Mine Workers of

America local chapters. Together they marched and rallied in solidarity to honor those who fought 90 years ago, and also to protect the land, water and people of Appalachia.

In a sea of “rednecks” – marchers wore red bandanas to show respect to those original 10,000 miners – they marched for 50 miles from Marmet to Blair, WV. At times the crowd was 300 people deep wielding homemade signs that read, “Appalachia Deserves a Clean, Local Economy,” “Save Blair Mountain,” and many others.

Hundreds of people marching along narrow, winding mountain roads does not happen often, is not particularly safe, and involved inherent personal risk.

The actual march was not the only risk to the participants. Many were greeted with taunts, signs, horns and close-running coal trucks from those who support the industry.

In an interesting juxtaposition, miners and their families, many of those who enjoy the benefits that the original miners fought for in 1921, harassed the marchers.

“Over half of the local residents along the route were very supportive of our march,” said Russell Oliver, KFTC

One of the many creative signs on the march. These youth showed the context of this march, just like the original one in 1921, was by and for workers and their supporters, against an abusive industry that fights labor and union rights.

Some KFTC members reunited on the final day of the march before the rally. member from Perry County. “On the first day of the march a local man who supported us sat on his four wheeler along the road, with flowers and a sign that said ‘Thank You’ He felt that he could not stand up for this march for fear he might loose his job.”

Harassment did not stop each day at the end of the march. Every night the marchers faced a different challenge

from having their camping permits revoked (at 10 p.m. after camp was set up) to constant noise and threats while they tried to sleep.

Organizers were quick to react to the adversity and pressure placed on them by industry interests and politicians acting for the coal industry.

Marchers had to adapt and move (continued on next page)

Long-time KFTC members Sue Tallichet (Rowan County), Doug Doerrfeld (Rowan County), and Bev May (Floyd County) met up at the rally and showed their KFTC unity in matching shirts.

balancing the scales, June 22 , 2011

Page 11

Canary Project Update

The fight for historic Blair Mountain – 90 years later

(continued from previous page) forward, so every morning and evening marchers were shuttled from a home base (a warehouse in Marmet) to the starting point and back in the evening.

This added significant logistics, time and cost to the mobilization but marchers were willing to do what had to be done to raise awareness to protect Blair Mountain.

“The thing that impressed me the most about the whole week was the degree of commitment and sacrifice I saw from a generation of young people who are so often accused of being detached, shallow, and unconcerned with social justice,” said KFTC member John Hennen. “It was particularly inspiring to see the respectful interaction and genuine affection between the younger and older folks.”

The marchers moved forward, day after day, escorted by police the entire route until they reached their final destination, Blair Mountain. Marchers joined with hundreds of other supporters, which included Bobby Kennedy Jr., Kathy Mattea, Ken Hechler and many more.

Together, a thousand strong, they rallied for the preservation of Blair Mountain and for a different vision and path forward for the Appalachian economy.

After the rally more than 150 individuals decided to head up to the top of Blair Mountain to reclaim the battlefield.

“We ran up a side trail onto coal company property. This was trespass and subject to arrest, which we all knew, and everyone clambered over an ironbar fence crossing the trail,” Hennen recalled.

“A red Wackenhut security truck was on the other side of the gate, with a guy videotaping everything. He asked me if we knew we were trespassing, I said, ‘Yup,’ and stayed to help others over the fence and up the trail.

“We proceeded over a mile up this rocky trail until one of our legal team announced we were officially on the battle site,” Hennen continued. “We erupted in cheers and singing. We ‘reclaimed’ the battlefield for the people of West Virginia and the nation.”

The second “battle” for Blair Mountain is far from over. The coal industry still plans to turn it into a mountaintop removal site unless the mountain can once again be protected and placed on the National Register of Historic Places.

This march was the second mass mobilization planned by Appalachia Rising. The first was in Washington, D.C. in the fall of 2010 where thousands of citizens from Appalachia descended upon the city, and many were arrested in

KFTC members John Hennen (Rowan County), Bev May (Floyd County) and Russell Oliver (Perry County) marched and helped with daily logistics for the March on Blair Mountain.

Bobby Kennedy Jr. and KFTC member Stanley Sturgill both spoke at the rally after the March on Blair Mountain. The crowd of more than 1,000 people sang “Happy Birthday” to Sturgill. an act of civil disobedience in front of the White House.

“We’re much stronger when we all stand up together for what is right,” Floyd County member Bev May stated at the end of the march.

“The march was more successful than could have been imagined,” said Oliver. “It was a historical march that many felt could not be done, but over 1,000 of us that were on the top of Blair Mountain on Saturday knew different.”

Read and watch more about the March on Blair Mountain by visiting www.MarchOnBlairMountain.org.

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balancing the scales, June 22 , 2011

Local Updates

Harlan County members work with allies across state lines Whether you’ve been to Harlan County in the last month or not, you could have run into Harlan County KFTC members in many places. From Appalachia, Virginia to Blair Mountain, West Virginia, they’ve been traveling all over to support their friends and allies in neighboring Appalachian communities working towards the same positive vision for Appalachia.

At the beginning of June, a van full of Harlan County KFTC members, ranging in age from 8 to 65 years, drove over beautiful Black Mountain to join their friends, Southern Appalachian Mountain Stewards (SAMS) in Wise County, VA, for a march, rally and celebration to Save Ison Rock Ridge.

Since hearing about a sister struggle in neighboring Virginia communities, with the same coal company (A &G)

that is threatening Lynch, the Harlan County chapter joined SAMS in organizing efforts. From a water monitoring training last year, to the recent rally for their mountains.

Carl Shoupe described their alliance: “A & G would love for this state line to keep us apart. But it can’t and they [A & G] can’t!”

Learn more about SAMS and the campaign to save Ison Rock Ridge in Appalachia, VA at www.samsva.org.

Soon after this adventure, that same van, full of KFTC members from all over eastern Kentucky, made its way to Blair, WV for the March on Blair Mountain.

Coverage of the march can be found in this issue of balancing the scales and at www.marchonblairmountain.org.

While attending, Stanley Sturgill of Lynch spoke to a crowd of more than

a thousand about KFTC’s vision and work to save Black Mountain. But before they heard from him, they — the whole thousand of them — sang Stanley Happy Birthday.

After graciously thanking the hundreds who had been marching the 50 miles over the past week, Stanley told them, “I’m right where I need to be on my birthday.”

In the midst of all this travel, the chapter has also managed to produce a brochure about the communities

working to save Black Mountain. This brochure outlines the history of Benham and Lynch, the community’s vision and urgency, what is at stake, and how people can get involved.

Download this brochure at www. kftc.org/saveblackmountain, learn about these communities, and then print as many copies as you can to share with others. You can also find a larger visioning booklet on the web page to help get to know the people behind the story.

TAKE ACTION FOR Benham and Lynch Please tell Gov. Steve Beshear and Energy and Environment Cabinet Secretary Len Peters that you support the Lands Unsuitable for Mining Petition, LUM-10-1. Say you oppose A & G permit 848-0287 and Nally & Hamilton permit 867-0472.

Talking Points 1. Based on a vision for their future that included building an economic base not dependent on mining, millions of dollars were spent to create Portal 31, the Coal Mining Museum and other tourist attractions, and preserve local landmarks. By supporting the Lands Unsuitable petition, Gov. Beshear would help protect this investment and affi rm local initiatives.

2. The A & G mine will damage the streams that provide water for the city of Lynch. The Kentucky Division of Water has a “Five Mile Rule.” It is supposed to prevent discharges from strip mines “within fi ve miles upstream from any public water supply intake.” It should follow this rule.

3. The proposed Nally & Hamilton strip mine would destroy Looney Ridge directly above Portal 31.

4. The A & G and Nally & Hamilton strip mines would place scores of sediment ponds above Lynch. Blasting would be near homes and historic buildings.

5. A & G and Nally & Hamilton would strip mine through existing gas wells.

6. The A & G and Nally & Hamilton strip mines would destroy the views from the historic cities of Lynch and Benham.

Contact

Governor Steve Beshear 700 Capitol Avenue, Suite 100 Frankfort, Ky. 40601 (502) 564-2611 Fax: (502) 564-2517 Online email: www.governor.ky.gov/ contact/contact.htm

KFTC member and Harlan County resident Stanley Sturgill marched to protect Ison Rock Ridge in Appalachia, Virginia. Members from Harlan County traveled to show support for their neighbors across state lines, showing that the coalfield struggle to stop the destruction from mountaintop removal coal mining is a united regional effort.

30 Years

Send a copy to Len Peters, Cabinet Secretary Energy and Environment Cabinet 5th Floor, Capital Plaza Tower Frankfort, Ky. 40601 502-564-5525, ext. 214 Fax: 502-564-3969 Len.Peters@ky.gov

For more information and additional actions to support Benham and Lynch, please visit www.kftc.org/benham

Of Action For Justice To celebrate our 30th birthday we are publishing a historical booklet full of campaign time lines, stories and ads of support.

If you, your church, organization or business would like to purchase an inexpensive ad, contact Jerry Hardt for more information and rates.

Bev May shar ed a sample of her wate r with Govern or Beshear, 2011

Jerry@KFTC.org or call 502-614-6637

Happy 30th Birthday, KFTC

balancing the scales, June 22 , 2011

Page 13

Canary Project Update

Chapman-Crane works with people of faith for healthy air

In May, Letcher County member Sharman Chapman-Crane was a Clean Air Ambassador to the 50 States United for Healthy Air convening. She was accompanied by Jeff, her husband.

by Sharman Chapman-Crane

It began as an invitation from the National Council of Churches to represent Kentucky as people of faith. NCC sponsored Jeff and me to go to Washington, D.C. May 2-5. The event was cosponsored by the American Nurses Association, EarthJustice, the HipHop Caucus, the NCC, and Physicians for Social Responsibility. There were people from all 50 states, native nations within our boundaries, and Puerto Rico representing 43 other organizations.

You can check out people and their stories on the internet at: earthjustice. org/50states.

We met simultaneously with Interfaith Power and Light folks who were also gathered to speak to the same issues. Around 200 people gathered with the same vision, the same voice.

Tuesday morning included everyone introducing themselves and then some training in effective lobbying. The afternoon held meetings with White House officials and Lisa Jackson, EPA administrator.

Wednesday was packed with ap-

Canary Briefs Clean Water Mini-Lobby Week KFTC members will return to the halls of Congress in July for the next Mini-Lobby Week in support of the Clean Water Protection Act. Members from other groups with the Alliance for Appalachia will also participate.

The lobby days are July 2527, with the 24th and 28th to be used for travel.

Anyone interested in being part of the KFTC delegation should contact Kevin Pentz at Kevin@kftc.org or 606-3350764.

pointments and fortunately we were assigned a lobbying facilitator who got us from point A to point B – meeting to meeting, building to building.

Our 11 a.m. meeting was with Eric King in Senator Mitch McConnell’s office. I think Mr. King may not refer to coal as “cheap energy” ever again.

At 1 p.m. we reconnoitered to meet with Aaron Jones in Rep. Hal Rogers’ office. Mr. Jones insisted he wasn’t the point person for mining issues, but health issues. We insisted that using coal for power creates health issues. He finally agreed if he lived where we did, he’d be in D.C. trying to get someone to listen.

At 3 o’clock we reported to Senator Rand Paul’s office to talk with Rachel Latta. She said Senator Paul “supports the Clean Air and Clean Water Acts without reservation.” We shall see.

Our 4 o’clock meeting was with a “friendly” staffer, Patricia Beneke, Democratic Senior Counsel for the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources. She was very welcoming, has a good grasp of mountaintop removal and coal ash issues. She also provided several leads to learn more about nitrofracking. She had never heard of it.

Jeff and I quickly fell into a tagteam approach that was quite effective at pushing back. We left Rep. Rogers a written invitation to contact Stanley

Sturgill, KFTC member, about coming “home” for a meeting with us. And we left literature and photographs for each representative.

We were invited to stay an extra day to be a silent presence on Thursday morning at a special “hearing” called by Rep. Bob Gibbs of Ohio on “EPA mining policies – Assault on Appalachian jobs.”

You may have seen Jeff talking with Kentucky’s Dr. Leonard Peters, secretary of Energy and Environment Cabinet. Dr. Peters and his fellow witnesses testified that we (environmentalists) are wealthy outsiders, we’ve created the domestic energy crisis, helped foreign energy producers, and shut down many small coal companies – costing jobs, creating undue burdens on the coal industry, creating high unemployment, pushing for water quality criteria that has barely been studied …

The most truthful thing that was said was that the coal industry has over 160 applications waiting on the EPA – because they (the coal companies) don’t know what a “good” application looks like, one that will be granted a permit.

Now, since returning home, I’ve written thank-yous and reminders to everyone we met with, letters to the editors for the Washington Post and the Lexington and Louisville newspapers, and lastly now signing off as correspondent for Letcher County.

Surface Mining Law Training

Mediation in Clean Water Case

People can learn more about using the 1977 federal Surface Mine Control and Reclamation Act (SMCRA) to protect their homes and their communities at a workshop July 29-30 in Pittsburgh. It is sponsored by the Citizens Coal Council, a national network of citizens groups from most states where coal is mined (there are 26) and Native American nations.

The Alliance for Appalachia has some scholarships available for KFTC members. If interested, contact Kevin Pentz at Kevin@ kftc.org or 606-335-0764.

Court-ordered mediation in the Clean Water Enforcement case against ICG and Frasure Creek mining companies set for June 8 was postponed at the request of the mediator, for personal and professional reasons.

The mediator said he received 1,500 pages of case files less than 48 hours before the mediation session, which did not give him adequate time to prepare.

Attorneys for KFTC and our allies, the Kentucky Energy and Environment Cabinet and the two companies instead went before Franklin Circuit Judge

Sharman Chapman-Crane (pictured left) has been a longstanding KFTC member in Letcher County. In the picture above, Chapman-Crane was one of the many voices who worked with the Beehive Collective on their True Cost of Coal project.

Phillip Shepherd to request that the deadline for mediation be extended, which he did with a July 26 deadline.

Judge Shepherd also affirmed his goal to either have the case heard, or a mediated settlement presented to him, in late August.

The companies are guilty of thousands of violations of the Clean Water Act in eastern Kentucky over a two-year period.

KFTC and our allies intervened when state officials proposed a settlement with weak corrective action and minimal fines – which have done nothing to stop ongoing violations.

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balancing the scales, June 22 , 2011

Voting Rights Update

Primary election suffers from lackluster voter turnout

The 2011 Kentucky Primary Election has come and gone, and now KFTC members are taking some time to analyze the results and the impact of their Voter Empowerment work before moving forward.

The strongest theme throughout election day, unfortunately, was low voter turnout. Predicted to be between 9 - 10 percent, actual turnout was still quite poor but beat the predictions a bit to hit 10.35 percent – a good bit above the abysmal 1999 primary turnout but still a far cry from the numbers many think represent a strong democracy.

KFTC members typically have a much higher voter turnout percentage. This information for the May primary will not be available for several months.

KFTC’s non-partisan Voter Empowerment work this primary election was modest, but important, including voter registration events in many communities earlier this year, solid voter mobilization phone banks in several chapters, distributing voter guides, receiving 13,000 page views at www.

KentuckyElection.org, running a voter mobilization add on Facebook that was seen 800,000 times, getting 950 people to pledge to vote through a KFTC Facebook event, mailing a postcard to 13,400 households of KFTC members and friends, and keeping up a good drumbeat of news coming through the KFTC blog, balancing the scales and other channels about the primary.

There also were some chapter-level events to educate and mobilize voters.

Here are some of the actual results of the races:

On the first Saturday in August every year, hundreds of politically-minded people along with many candidates and public officials come to a tiny town in far western Kentucky for a rigorous day of stump speeches and barbecue called the Fancy Farm Picnic, an event that tends to set the tone for the following three months of election season.

This year, KFTC wants to bring a lot of members out to talk to candidates and others about important issues like voting rights, progressive tax reform, and mountaintop removal mining.

They’ll be passing out hundreds of stickers and newsletters and showing candidates that our members are

involved in the political process at all levels.

Fancy Farm festivities in Graves County fall on Saturday, August 6 this year. KFTC will have carpools leaving from many communities across the state on August 5 (it’s a long journey from all chapter areas).

The political speeches start at 2 p.m., so much of the field work will be from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

If there is a member with an RV who would like to join the KFTC delegation, that would be especially helpful.

Governor - Republican Primary Name

Votes Vote% Williams, David 68,540 48% Moffett, Phil 53,950 38% Holsclaw, Barbara 19,616 14% Secretary of State - Democratic Primary Name

Votes Vote% Grimes, Alison 85,438 55% Walker, Elaine 69,202 45% Secretary of State - Republican Primary Name

Votes Vote% Johnson, Bill 66,430 50% Legg, Hilda 65,332 50% Auditor - Republican Primary Name

Votes Vote% Kemper, John 70,874 57% Wuchner, Addia 52,876 43%

Treasurer - Democratic Primary Name

Votes Vote% Hollenbach, Todd 106,174 71% Hamrick, Steve 43,463 29% Agriculture Commissioner Democratic Primary Name

Votes Farmer, Robert 45,666 Lackey, John 31,560 Wilson, B.D. 29,245 Gritton, Stewart 24,897

Vote% 30% 21% 19% 17%

Williams, David

18,879 13%

2011 Primary Election Matchups

Agriculture Commissioner Republican Primary Name

Votes Vote% Comer, James 86,322 67% Rothenburger, Rob 43,142 33%

Governor - Steve Beshear (D) vs. David Williams (R) vs. Gatewood Galbraith (I)

An interesting take-away from this is just how few votes it may have taken to shift the results of some of these races one way or another.

The closest race by far was the Republican Secretary of State’s race, won by just 1,098 votes. But just 14,000 to 18,000 votes separate such large races as the Democratic Secretary of State, Republican Auditor, Democratic Agriculture Commissioner, and even the Republican Governor’s Primary.

Agriculture Commissioner - Bob Farmer (D) vs. James Comer (R)

As for KFTC’s non-partisan Voter Empowerment work, candidate surveys will be sent out shortly to candidates who did not have primary contests, to start things moving on KFTC’s fall voter guides.

There are a lot of plans to be made about KFTC’s door-to-door work, voter registration campaigns and phone banks. Read balancing the scales or check www.KFTC.org/blog for updates.

Important Voter Dates:

*Note that the deadline to actually file for office has not yet passed for independent candidates and so the field could widen a bit between now and then.

Secretary of State - Alison Lundergan Grimes (D) vs. Bill Johnson (R)

Attorney General - Jack Conway (D) vs.

Todd P’Pool (R) Treasurer - Todd Hollenbach (D) vs. KC Crosbie (R) vs. Ken Moellman (I) State Auditor - Adam Edelen (D) vs John Kemper (R)

Voter registration deadline: Oct. 11 General Election: Tuesday, Nov. 8.

Members begin to prepare for Fancy Farm political festivities

Anyone interested in participating is asked to contact Dave Newton at Dave@kftc.org or 859-420-8919 for more information.

KFTC members and allies have made it a habit to have a presence at the annual Fancy Farm picnic to help create political awareness for restoring voting rights.

balancing the scales, June 22 , 2011

Page 15

Voting Rights Update

Former Felon Voices: Jason Smith, Hardin County

A couple of weeks ago, Jason Smith, 32, from Elizabethtown succeeded in regaining the right to vote. He plans on voting for the first time in the election this November.

But it wasn’t an easy path getting there, he said.

“My father was an alcoholic and I had a lot of problems at home growing up. I fled from that at a young age and managed to get my way through high school on my own, but I didn’t always make the best decisions back then.”

“When I was 18, I got caught with ½ ounce of marijuana and an improperly stowed handgun in my car, and that was enough to put me in jail with a felony. I got put in with some pretty hardened criminals and gang members, which didn’t exactly help me in turning my life around,” said Smith.

“To be honest, I looked to some of the older guys as mentors then and they weren’t very good role models. I’m not blaming anybody for my own choices, but it was a bad path to get on.

“After I became a parent, though, I decided that I really needed to turn my

life around. It brought everything into focus for me. But my choices are really limited by my past.

“I went to college and did really well in school, though, learning to be a chemical dependency abuse counselor. I tell people that I got a PhD in the street and then sharpened that to a point with a college education. In all of that, I’ve learned a lot that I can use to really help people.

“After I realized I could apply to get my voting rights back through a partial pardon from the governor, I knew I had to try. Because being silent in this democracy and having my kids be silenced too, by extension, didn’t seem right.”

“I applied to get my rights back and then followed up by phone every couple of days, but never heard back.

“Finally, I visited the court in person and asked about my case. They claimed that I had a failure to appear in court offense on my record, but I knew that wasn’t right. When I contested it, they told me that I’d probably have to get a lawyer.”

Smith pushed back and stubbornly waited in the office until he could convince someone to take the time to look into it more deeply. Eventually, they found that the records of the Jason

Smith they had on file belonged to a man with a different birthday, so Jason’s application had stopped because of something another Jason Smith did.

“Admittedly, it’s a pretty common name,” Smith said, laughing. Still, he noted that most people wouldn’t have been persistent enough to push their way through a snag like that.

“I’m pretty bull-headed, really,” Smith said. “I have a great education and I was willing to really follow-up on my application, but there’s people who don’t have my bullheadedness or luck, and I’m afraid they’re not getting their rights back.”

And indeed, more than 120,000 Kentuckians haven’t been able to navigate the process that Smith went through.

He’s dedicated to helping them, too.

“After I got my right to vote back, I posted the certificate on Facebook and a few other people approached me to see if I could help them get their rights back. I’m helping a few through the process right now.”

He also spent some time looking for organizations that work on Voting Rights and discovered KFTC by finding a news story about KFTC’s Voting Rights Rally in Frankfort earlier this year. He managed to blow up one of the images big enough that he could make

More than 40 KFTC members and allies came together in Louisville on June 11 to revitalize the Voting Rights Coalition work to restore voting rights to former felons who have paid their

debt to society.

Representatives from about a dozen organizations came from Louisville, Lexington, northern Kentucky, Georgetown, Elizabethtown, Frankfort and

Prestonsburg. Ten former felons were in attendance, providing key insights and personal stories.

It’s been more than a year since the group last met as a coalition on

To share more of the stories from former felons across the commonwealth, this is one part of a series of short interviews that will run in balancing the scales.

Jason Smith worked relentlessly to regain his right to vote. Through flawed systems and clerical errors, Smith overcame each barrier to be an example for his son and for others. out the letters “KFTC.”

“I have a loud enough voice on my own to get my rights back,” said Smith.

“A lot of people don’t, but KFTC helps other people to have a loud voice and I want to be a part of that. I’ve never done anything small in my life and I’m looking forward to doing something big with this.”

Voting Rights Coalition sets plans in motion for 2012

this scale. Members spent much of the meeting sharing an analysis of how the campaign is going, talking about recent work and building relationships.

Storytelling was another key part of the day. Participants broke into pairs to practice telling powerful personal stories about why they individually care about this issue.

They did some work that resulted in a continuation of a series in balancing the scales called “Former Felon Voices” that tells stories about individual former felons from across the state.

A lot was accomplished at this meeting, and folks were eager to organize another meeting soon to build more solid plans moving forward. The idea of having this meeting in Georgetown and including a field activity (like a door-todoor canvass) got some traction. Watch KFTC’s website at www.KFTC.org for a specific date.

Page 16

balancing the scales, June 22 , 2011

Renew East Kentucky Update

Renew East Kentucky campaign grows from years of work

KFTC’s Renew East Kentucky campaign developed over the past few years from members’ work to reform the rural electric co-ops and to stop the coalburning Smith plant.

KFTC members got involved in this work because they had a vision, one in which “our communities have good jobs that support our families without doing damage to the water, air, and land.” KFTC members and leaders identified that the Smith plant proposed by the East Kentucky Power Cooperative, and supported by its 16 distribution co-ops, stood in the way of that vision.

In the spring of 2009, KFTC began actively organizing to help co-op members become more involved in their co-ops, including running for co-op boards of directors, and to stop construction of the Smith plant.

Throughout the campaign, KFTC members were vision-centered and solutions-oriented. At co-op annual meetings and permit hearings members carried the message that “there is a better way.” The solutions that members proposed – a strong investment in energy efficiency and local renewable energy to offset the need for the dangerous plant and to create muchneeded local jobs – was supported by research.

In the summer of 2010, KFTC published an article in the journal Solutions that used this research to lay out a detailed vision and plan for what the co-ops could be doing instead of spending nearly $1 billion on a risky coal plant.

This plan called for an aggressive program of energy efficiency and renewable energy – funded with $100 million per year for five years with loans from the federal government – throughout the co-op area. The plan called for the co-ops to help their members afford the energy efficiency upgrades through an on-bill financing mechanism, in which members would pay back the cost of the upgrades with their energy savings right on their bill; there would be no prohibitive up-front costs.

Additionally, the plan called for a coordinated workforce development effort, so local workers would be properly trained to step into these thousands of new jobs that would be created. And finally, the plan called for a virtual roundtable of stakeholders – from nonprofit housing groups to local governments – working together to ensure the success of these investments.

In November 2010, the Smith plant was cancelled and KFTC was able to pivot and concentrate on organizing around this plan. This new campaign of work to make this plan a reality, ramping up this spring and summer, is called the Renew East Kentucky Campaign.

“Renew East Kentucky” has a double meaning; “East Kentucky” is short for the East Kentucky Power Cooperative as well as the geographic area of eastern Kentucky – and both the co-op and the region are primed for renewal.

The Renew East Kentucky Campaign is an important and achievable first step in the Appalachian Tran-

sition. This work will be able to have not only tangible energy, economic and job creation benefits, but can also begin to shift public perception toward transition, offer a proactive plan that all but the most fearful or coal-captive politicians can promote, and launch a new, growing sector of the national economy right in eastern Kentucky.

It is an immediate solution to the host of complex problems facing the region and could be modeled in rural areas across the United States.

Since last fall, two important parts of the plan that KFTC is working to make successful with the campaign have been set in motion.

The first is the Demand Side Management and Renewable Energy Collaborative that KFTC and allies are now a part of, along with EKPC, the 16 distribution co-ops, and the Attorney General’s office.

This Collaborative is a key first step in bringing together a regional roundtable of stakeholders in charting a clean energy path forward for the region. The next issue of balancing the scales will include a report on

the work of this Collaborative.

A second critical piece to the plan – on-bill financing – has made significant progress as well. This past winter, the Kentucky Public Service Commission (PSC) approved an on-bill financing pilot project, called How$mart, in four of EKPC’s co-ops. KFTC members are now beginning to meet with their co-op leadership to learn how KFTC can collaborate to make this program a success.

So far, the work of the Collaborative and the meetings with the co-ops have gone very well. Stay tuned in the coming months to learn more about other of KFTC’s strategies, and their progress, in the Renew East Kentucky Campaign, and to learn how to participate in the official “launch” of the campaign later this year.

If you are interested in getting involved in the Renew East Kentucky Campaign, whether you’re a co-op member or not, contact organizer Sara Pennington at 606-276-9933 or sara@kftc.org. As with all of KFTC’s campaigns, there is plenty of work to do, and we are in a truly exciting moment in which to be working to Renew East Kentucky.

Announcing a beautiful new book …

Saving Kentucky is about preserving not only

land and historic property, but also a way of life. It tells the stories of an eclectic group of Kentuckians – including KFTC member Daymon Morgan – both in their own words and through the extraordinary photographs of Thomas Hart Shelby. From tenant farmers to urban revivalists, they have one thing in common: a deep connection to their heritage and a fierce determination to preserve it for future generations.

In these pages you will meet families who see,

with uncommon clarity, the human value of the land. You will meet leaders, innovators and visionaries—people who are thinking about forever, not just tomorrow.

Daymon Morgan

Sally Van Winkle Campbell has traveled Kentucky, driving the roads of the Bluegrass, seeing firsthand the majesty, as well as the heartbreak of the eastern Appalachian Mountains, and witnessing the renewal of the commonwealth’s urban centers.

More than a warning, it is an invitation – a call to each of us to embrace the future with hope and, most of all, imagination, even as we hold tight to the past.

Pick up a copy at a local independent bookstore or order online at: www.savingkentucky.com A portion of the proceeds from this book will support the work of KFTC to save the mountains and heritage of Eastern Kentucky from mountaintop removal and valley fills.

balancing the scales, June 22 , 2011

Page 17

Renew East Kentucky Update

Floyd County members look forward to collaborating with Big Sandy Rural Electric Cooperative Corporation

On May 31, three rural electric coop members, along with KFTC staff, met with the management of Big Sandy Rural Electric Cooperative Corporation (RECC).

Big Sandy RECC is one of the four co-ops in the East Kentucky Power Cooperative service area participating in the new How$mart on-bill financing program, sponsored by MACED.

KFTC members in Hueysville (Floyd County), including Rick Handshoe and Lowell Shepherd and their neighbor Cory Heintzelman, requested a meeting with Big Sandy RECC staff to learn more about how the How$mart program works, how co-op members can participate, and how KFTC members and others can join with the co-op to make the program a success. The members met with David Estep, president & general manager, and Jeff Prater, operations manager.

The members thanked the staff for taking this important first step toward a great program that will both help the most vulnerable co-op members save on their utility bills and create local jobs in an area desperately in need of them.

The co-op is just beginning to implement the program: they are building a list of potential participants based on energy audits they’ve performed in the past, and they are planning their first few How$mart investments carefully to make sure the project is a success.

The members then shared a little bit about how KFTC works – that we are a

grassroots organizing group and have experience tabling and going doorto-door to win issues. The members and staff discussed how the co-op and KFTC could collaborate to bring attention to the program and to promote more energy efficiency among all co-op members.

Members were pleasantly surprised when the co-op staff began providing suggestions and asking questions about how the two nonprofits can coordinate and assist each other in communications and community organizing to bring support to the program.

The group left with next steps – including further conversations and ideas for joint outreach – and positive feelings all around.

“I felt good about the meeting. I believe we achieved something,” Lowell Shepherd said. “I believe we’re on the same page. That was surprising to me. I was pleased.”

Members in the three other How$mart co-op areas are in the process of scheduling meetings with their own co-op staff and management and looking forward to similar success and opportunities to collaborate.

Along with other key strategies, including leadership development and community outreach, members believe this approach will put citizens on the path to a renewed East Kentucky and begin an economic transition in Appalachia and beyond.

Big Sandy Rural Electric Co-op members Rick Handshoe (ctr), Lowell Shepherd (ctr right), and Cory Heintzelman (right) met with the management and staff of their co-op: President & General Manager David Estep (ctr left) and Operations Manager Jeff Prater (left).

Renew East Kentucky Member Profile: Lowell Shepherd During the meeting with Big Sandy RECC, Lowell Shepherd shared his appreciation for the way the co-op ran its annual meeting earlier this year.

The staff from Big Sandy RECC and EKPC spoke about the new direction the co-ops need to take, and they emphasized the cooperative principles that the co-ops should adhere to – an important set of qualities such as “Concern For Community” and “Education, Information, and Training” that set rural electric cooperatives apart from for-profit and other utilities.

Shepherd said that this was the first time in a generation that co-op leaders discussed these issues at the annual meeting.

He should know: Shepherd has attended every single annual meeting of Big Sandy RECC for the past 34 years! Even when he lived out of state for a while, he would return back home to take his family to the yearly meetings.

Shepherd has seen many changes during his decades as a Big Sandy RECC member and was particularly pleased by General Manager David Estep’s receptiveness during the May 31 meeting.

Shepherd said, “As the meeting advanced he became more comfortable with us. He knew then we were there trying to help the members of the co-op save money on their electric bill by using the How$mart project, and working with Big Sandy Rural Electric Co-op to achieve that.”

Kentucky Sustainable Energy Alliance Update

Green housing summit unites

More than one hundred Kentuckians including homebuilders, architects, affordable housing providers and interested people from across the state attended the 2011 Green Housing Summit hosted by Kentucky Habitat for Humanity in May.

Participants were eager to learn about how “green” and “affordable” work together in housing construction and remodeling.

Kentucky Habitat for Humanity is a KFTC ally through the Kentucky Sustainable Energy Alliance.

KFTC member and Kentucky Habitat’s Sustainable Building Specialist Ginger Watkins played the lead role in making the summit a success.

Homebuilder and presenter Kriss Lowry encouraged other builders in the crowd to think “green” for more than just higher-income families.

Lowry noted that energy efficient housing isn’t just a nice thing to do – it makes economic sense.

“The lowest income Kentuckians pay the highest bills because their

homes are so inefficient. This makes no sense. The more efficient we can make homes, the more money we are putting back into people’s pockets.”

Andy McDonald, director of the Kentucky Solar Partnership, told the crowd about the Kentucky Sustainable Energy Alliance, noting that the alliance promotes sustainable energy solutions that are affordable for all Kentuckians.

McDonald explained that the policy solution supported by KySEA, known as the Clean Energy Opportunity Act, would require utilities to invest a substantial amount in efficiency upgrades to housing with lower-income families living in them.

How far can “green” go and still be affordable?

Architect, builder and KFTC member Dick Levine, who has decades of local, national and international experience in the design and building fields, reiterated other speakers’ comments that the creation of affordable zero net energy homes across the state should be a shared goal.

Page 18

balancing the scales, June 22 , 2011

Kentucky Sustainable Energy Alliance Update KySEA prepares to advance work in 2012 legislative session

Kentucky Sustainable Energy Alliance (KySEA) members gathered on May 24 to explore lessons learned over the last year and to plan for the upcoming year.

KFTC was a founding member of this alliance and was represented by Mary Love and Steve Boyce at the meeting.

Members discussed the current state of Kentucky’s energy landscape and future, as well as reflection about the lessons learned from the 2011 legislative session, during which KySEA members lobbied and gave powerful testimony in support of the Clean Energy Opportunity Act.

The Clean Energy Opportunity Act, sponsored by Representative Mary Lou Marzian in the 2011 General Assembly, was designed to increase Kentucky’s use of energy efficiency and renewable energy, while creating thousands of jobs.

KySEA members have agreed to support the Clean Energy Opportunity

Act again if it is introduced in the 2012 legislative session.

Primary goals for KySEA in the coming year are: • Build support for the Clean Energy Opportunity Act, • Seek passage of good energy legislation during the 2012 General Assembly that defines a new direction for Kentucky, • Build the capacity and effectiveness of the alliance, • Promote conversation about the benefits and feasibility of energy efficiency and renewable energy in Kentucky.

During the meeting, members began to plot out a course of action in the areas of research, outreach and education, and alliance-building efforts in order to meet these goals.

KFTC co-founded the Kentucky Sustainable Energy Alliance with other groups in 2009. Since then, KySEA has grown tremendously in many different sectors.

KySEA now has 46 member groups across many sectors and a number of individual members.

KySEA Member Groups: • Alternative Energies Kentucky, LLC • Appalachia-Science in the Public Interest • Avery and Sun • Bluegrass Greenworks, Inc. • CLEAN Call to Action • Clean Energy Action Project • Coalition for the Advancement of Regional Transportation (CART) • Community Farm Alliance • Cumberland Chapter, Sierra Club • Dovetail Solar and Wind • EarthWorks, LLC • Earthwell Energy Management, Inc. • Ecos Materials and Services, LLC • effEnergy, LLC • Energy Systems Group • Federation of Appalachian Housing Enterprises, Inc. • Frankfort Climate Action Network • Frontier Housing • Genesis Development of Kentucky, LLC • Global Environmental Services, LLC • Golfwood Services, Inc. • Homeless and Housing Coalition of Kentucky

• Impact Energy, LLC • Kentuckians For The Commonwealth • Kentucky Conservation Committee • Kentucky Environmental Foundation • Kentucky Habitat for Humanity • Kentucky Interfaith Power and Light • Kentucky Solar Energy Society • Kentucky Solar Partnership • Kentucky Student Environmental Coalition • League of Women Voters of Kentucky • LexCoolCity.org • Louisville Climate Action Network • Lowe Creek Farm • Madison County Home Energy Improvement Program • Metropolitan Housing Coalition • Mountain Association for Community Economic Development • Passionist Earth and Spirit Center Inc • Phinx, LLC • Phoenix Comfort Systems, LLC • RegenEn Solar • The Green Convene • Shaker Landing Hydro Associates, Inc. • Solar Energy Solutions • Women in Transition

KFTC Chairperson Steve Boyce and member Mary Love represent KFTC at the May meeting of the Kentucky Sustainable Energy Alliance (KySEA).

KySEA members also got a preview of an outreach presentation called the Clean Energy Road Show. It covers the basics of what types of clean energy exist in Kentucky and explores their feasibility. It also considers what obstacles are currently in place to widespread deployment of those resources.

KFTC staff and members will be offering this presentation to chapters and groups throughout the state over the next year, so look for it in your area!

If your group or church is interested in joining KySEA or hearing a presentation of the Clean Energy Road Show, contact nancy@kftc.org.

To learn more about the Clean Energy Opportunity Act or to find general information about energy efficiency and renewable energy in Kentucky, visit the KySEA website at www.kysea.org.

KySEA Brief: Energy Efficiency Portfolio Standards

In 2009, the Ohio state legislature passed an energy efficiency portfolio standard, similar to the one that the Kentucky Sustainable Energy Alliance has supported for Kentucky.

The standard requires Ohio utilities to offset a portion of electricity demand in their service areas through energy ef-

ficiency investments each year.

A cost analysis of the Ohio standard estimates the efficiency standard has saved Ohioans $56 million over and above its costs during its two years in place. (Source: Environmental and Law Policy Center and the American Council for an Energy Efficiency Economy)

Happy Birthday KFTC Save-the-Date August 27, 2011 Cathedral Domain

balancing the scales, June 22 , 2011

Page 19

Economic Justice Update

Rep. Hal Rogers’ budget cuts target mothers and children While U.S Rep. Paul Ryan’s (RWI) budget has received the bulk of the national media’s attention, it’s Kentucky’s own Rep. Hal Rogers who appropriates the funding in that

budget.

As chair of the House Appropriations Committee, Rep. Rogers decides how to allocate all of what is called “discretionary” spending – investments in everything that isn’t health care or Social Security.

About half of the U.S. discretionary spending is spent for the military.

The other half goes to the various structures of the federal government that were created to meet the nation’s shared goals and priorities – education, public safety, transportation, housing, agriculture, food safety, environmental safeguards, and other programs that help hold together the fabric of society.

The Women, Infants, Children (WIC) nutrition program is one if these. WIC ensures a baseline of health care and nutrition for low-income pregnant women, breastfeeding women, and infants and children under five years old.

Its goals are to improve the results of pregnancies, lower the risk of infant death and low-birth-weight babies, and ensure that babies and children are healthy and well-nourished.

Women and children who participate in WIC get access to nutritious food

like eggs, milk, cereal, peanut butter and dried beans, nutrition education and counseling, and can be referred for food stamps or health care programs.

Despite the program’s importance and success, Rep. Rogers’ budget aims to cut the WIC nutrition program by more than $832 million.

The Center for Budget and Policy Priorities found that under Rogers’ budget, if food prices remain stable – and economists warn that they are on a sharp rise – 200,000 to 350,000 WIC-eligible women and children would be turned away from the program next year.

How would this impact Rep. Rogers’ own district?

Vanessa Hall, a KFTC member of the Pike County chapter and a teacher, said that cuts to these programs don’t serve Kentucky’s children.

“We should be concerned about our communities. Our children are our future. If you don’t fertilize your garden you’re not going to get a good crop,” Hall said. “If we withhold nourishment from the future generation, we have no future.”

Hall also wondered what Rep. Rogers has done in his 30 years of holding Congressional office to move the 5th district forward.

“The people who have the pull to get the tax breaks aren’t the kind of businesses we want in here. We need to figure out what a good job really is, then we have to create those ourselves.

“We have to stop the brain drain.

My child left, one of my nieces is in Lexington, and others left,” said Hall.

“One hundred percent of the kids in my family have left the area. I want my family here.

I need my family here.”

Hall added, “I don’t think Hal Rogers has done all he could. Maybe he doesn’t know the answers, but he has the resources to find them. He needs to do a better job of getting that done.”

Rep. Rogers’

budget also makes some striking cuts to the Department of Energy’s (DOE) renewable energy and energy efficiency programs—weatherization, implementation of a smartgrid, wind energy research and implementation, and several others.

Alongside these cuts are increases to the DOE’s fossil fuels programs; he’s proposed giving the Office of Fossil Fuels more funding than it even requested.

KFTC staff and members are continuing to learn about these cuts, and will be sharing out over the coming weeks.

In the meantime, KFTC members are developing strategies to help Kentuckians, especially East Kentuckians in the 5th district, hold Rep. Rogers accountable for these proposals. Here’s what you can do today: • Write a letter to the editor. What do you think about Rep. Roger’s proposals, and their impacts on families, small business owners, and jobs

Economic Justice Quick Hits • CEOs of the U.S.’s top companies enjoyed an 11 percent jump in pay last year.

• An April 17 Washington Post/ABC poll found 72 percent support raising taxes on Americans with incomes over $250,000 per year as the best way to eliminate the national debt. (http:// www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/polls/postpoll_04172011.html) • The latest national survey by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press found that about two thirds of citizens are okay with: a) rolling back corporate tax breaks, and b) raising taxes on wealthy individuals.

• The New York Times/CBS found that 72 percent of the people in the U.S. approve of increasing federal taxes on households making more than $250,000 a year, starting in 2013. Fiftyfive percent of Republicans want the tax hike, along with 74 percent of independents and 83 percent of Democrats.

• Still, Senator McConnell and others in Congress are pushing for a long-term

in the 5th district?

• Help arrange for a workshop for your church or community group. Rep. Rogers’ budget proposals haven’t made many front pages. Help people learn about them by helping to arrange a KFTC workshop about what he’s proposing, and how to get involved with organizing for solutions.

• KFTC is working for solutions to renew East Kentucky and provide a just transition from a coal-based economy. Learn more by talking with your chapter organizers, and get involved!

• Let Rep. Rogers know what you think, and ask him to join us in supporting the Fairness in Taxation Act. Until the August recess, he’ll be at 2406 Rayburn House Office Bldg, Washington, DC 20515; (202) 2254601. extension of the Bush-era tax breaks for the wealthy. According to a report from Citizens for Tax Justice, extending the Bush-era tax breaks from 2013 through 2022 would cost the United States $5.5 trillion in public dollars. This is twice what these tax cuts have cost us since they were imposed in 2001.

• The U.S.’s wealthiest 400 people take in an average of $270 million each. But only 8 percent of that income is from salaries or work. Most of their income is from capital gains and dividends, which are taxed at a lower rate than the money you earn in your paycheck.

• The Fairness in Taxation Act (cosponsored by Kentucky’s Rep. John Yarmuth) would close these loopholes and create new income tax brackets for people making more than $1 million a year. If enacted, the Fairness in Taxation Act would raise federal tax revenue by more than $78.9 billion in 2011 alone, according to Citizens for Tax Justice.

That would more than cover the $61 billion dollars in GOP-proposed cuts to Pell grants, community health centers, high speed rail, Head Start, NIH funding, housing cuts and Title X family planning.

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balancing the scales, June 22 , 2011

Kentucky Screening July 9 - Aug. Kentucky Theater 1 E. Main St. Lexington, Kentucky 9- 1- 9 FREE Parking After 6 p.m.

In the City Annex garage next to the Fayette County Clerk’s office... visit www.kentuckyTheater.com for show times and tickets.

Happy 30th Birthday, KFTC

KFTC members mounted a successful statewide electoral campaign against the Broad Form Deed in 1988.

30 Years

KFTC Member Max Thomas joined more than 1,000 other Kentuckians as he rallied for New Power in 2010.

Of Action For Justice

KFTC 30th Birthday Party Saturday, August 27 Noon - 10 p.m.

Cathedral Domain Irvine, KY.

Family reunion, games, dinner, stories, music, hiking, swimming, nighttime square dance, and 00 of your closest KFTC Family Members Please RSVP at www.KFTC.org/birthday and be on the lookout for more details and a schedule of the birthday events.

For more information, call 606-878-2161

Calendar of Events June 27 Madison County chapter meeting, 7 p.m. at Berea College Appalachian Center (205 N. Main St., Berea) July 4

Central Kentucky July 4 parade and table event. 9 am - 6pm. Contact Ondine@kftc.org or 859-276-0563 for more information.

July 6

Letcher County chapter meeting. 6-7 p.m., Jenkins City Lake Picnic Shed, contact Willa at 606-632-0051 for more information.

July 7

Harlan County chapter meeting, 6 p.m. in Room 219 of Southeast Community College’s Appalachian Center in Cumberland.

July 7

Scott County chapter meeting, 7 p.m., at the Georgetown Public Library. Email Dave@KFTC.org or 859-420-8919 for more information or to volunteer.

July 8 - 14

The Last Mountain screening at Village 8 Movies in Louisville KY

July 9

Land Reform Committee Meeting 10:30 am - 4:30 pm. Contact Kevin@ KFTC.org for more information.

July 9

Northern KY Voter Empowerment Strategy Meeting, 3-5 pm, Reality Tuesday’s Cafe, Email Joe@KFTC.org or call 859-380-6103.

July 11

Jefferson County chapter meeting, 6:30 p.m. at the First Unitarian Church, 809 South 4th Street

July 19

Northern Kentucky chapter meeting,7 pm, 25 W 7th Street Covington, KY. Email Joe@KFTC.org or call 859-380-6103.

July 19

Perry County chapter meeting, 6 pm in Hazard; contact Colleen Unroe for more information, Colleen@kftc.org or 606-632-0051.

July 21

Central Kentucky chapter meeting, 7 p.m. at the Episcopal Diocese Mission House (on the corner of Martin Luther King Blvd. and 4th Street) in Lexington.

July 21

Rowan County chapter meeting, 6 p.m. at St. Alban’s Episcopal Church on 5th Street in Morehead.

July 23

Euchre for Justice Northern Kentucky Fundraisier. Email Joe@KFTC. org or call 859-380-6103 for more information.

July 25

Madison County chapter meeting, 7 p.m. at Berea College Appalachian Center (205 N. Main St., Berea)

July 26

Western Kentucky chapter meeting, 6:30 pm - 8 pm Universal Unitarian Church, 2033 Nashville Rd.

July 29 - The Last Mountain screening at the Kentucky Theater, Lexington KY. Aug 4 Aug 6

KFTC members travel to Fancy Farm Political Picnic. Email Dave@ KFTC.org for more information.

Aug. 27 Happy 30th Birthday KFTC! All day family reunion/birthday celebrating 30 years of Action for Justice. Cathedral Domain, Irvine KY. Stay tuned for more information and details about this fun event.