Oh yeah, what with the fact that coal mining jobs have suffered an 85% decrease over the past 60 years (and around a 70% decrease in just the last 30), coal isn’t saving so many jobs these days, after all. Even though I didn’t see it until now, CNN reported [...]
Number of comments: 10 While I still haven’t been able to condense my thoughts about the planned UK bicycle permit program, I’ll say that I’m a whole hearted supporter (especially because I was involved in formulating the plan). Despite a vast majority of those commenting on it flying off the handle without properly investigating [...]
Number of comments: 1 Just in case you still have a little love to give after Valentine’s Day, take this as your last minute reminder that KFTC’s annual I Love Mountains Day will be tomorrow, Tuesday February 17th. Things get started around 11am at the Kentucky River before moving up to the Capitol around [...]
You know that time in your life when you did something because you thought it was a good idea, but didn’t bother to ask that one person you were friends with to help you, even though they knew alot more about what you were doing than you did? Yeah, that’s [...]
Number of comments: 1 Greg Stumbo made the first big mistake of his tenure as Speaker of the House, reappointing Jim Gooch to chair the House Natural Resources Committee.
Although it’s no secret that I’m not a big fan of Jody Richards, the newly-elected Speaker of the House just found a way to become the [...]
UPDATED: here is the University’s official sustainability policy statement download here
There are few times in my life (well, the last three and a half years) that I have applauded University of Kentucky President Lee Todd – today is one of those times. This morning, President Todd approved a university sustainability [...]
Number of comments: 1 Since today is the first day of the 2009 Kentucky General Assembly, I thought I’d give a quick rundown of the pre-filed bills we’ll be watching this session. Once the legislature starts gearing up, I’m sure there will be more to add…
HB104 (sponsored by Rep. Don Pasley) AN ACT relating [...]
Number of comments: 2 Devoted Kentucky environmental activist Dave Cooper (of Mountaintop Removal Roadshow fame) has been detained for trespassing in Tennessee while attempting to photograph the aftermath of the TVA coal ash spill. Dave was removed from the site with another activist from United Mountain Defense, who has been leading the local charge [...]
While the future of GreenKY may be up in the air for 2009, this past year has surely been a wild ride as far as covering environmental politics and policy in Kentucky goes – from the year’s elections to ongoing energy policy debates, there was certainly a lot to talk [...]
On Tuesday morning, I was one of the first to write about the coal ash disaster in Harriman, Tennessee, where an impoundment pond at the TVA Kingston Power Plant ruptured, sending massive amounts of toxic sludge into the surrounding community. The previous approximation that the spill amounted to 500 million [...]
Number of comments: 5 UPDATED: The disaster in Tennessee was much worse than originally thought. Rather than the approximately 500 million gallons of toxic waste, the reality is much closer to ONE BILLION GALLONS.
The Martin County Sludge Spill of 2000 just happened again in Tennessee. According to Dave Cooper of the Mountaintop Removal Roadshow:
On [...]
It’s no secret that the Bush administration is trying to do some last minute editing of federal regulations to make sure that their buddies get paid - and the recent elimination of the stream buffer zone for mountaintop removal mines was no exception. We’re just glad that someone decided to [...]
To Whom it May Concern-
my name is Taylor Shelton and I am a recent graduate of the University of Kentucky. It is precisely because of my education, both in and outside of the classroom, that I feel compelled to write you in regards to the call for public comment on [...]
It’s getting to be 2009 General Assembly time, so we’ll probably have plenty of news about bills relating to energy and environmental policy in the coming weeks. We’ve already reported on the Stream Saver Bill, which is probably the most important piece of legislation from the standpoint of most environmentalists.
Earlier [...]
The most important piece of environmental legislation in the Commonwealth was pre-filed today for the 2009 General Assembly. The Stream Saver Bill, largely written by award-winning attorney and activist Tom FitzGerald and Kentuckians for the Commonwealth, was filed today by Rep. Don Pasley of Winchester. Much to the dismay of [...]
Number of comments: 5 I just received an email from the Frankfort Climate Action Network calling for public comment on Governor Beshear’s energy plan. As you may remember from my initial writeup, the governor’s plan contains some excellent elements - especially in the world of energy efficiency and conservation. Those good things are, however, [...]
Number of comments: 1 Now I hadn’t really had the interest in saying much about the ACCCE’s most ridiculous stunt of all (of course, lying about how much you’ve reduced your emissions is pretty ridiculous) - the Clean Coal Carolers. What was essentially another lame attempt by an industry PR group to appeal to [...]
Number of comments: 1 The past few weeks have brought us a nearly constant stream of coal related news - meaning that, for once, we’ve been able to maintain a healthy debate about the issues for more than a day. Well, a healthy debate might not be the best word. As is par for [...]
Number of comments: 8 I’m probably not the first person you’ve heard this from, but today Bank of America announced that it was pulling its investments in companies that support mountaintop removal. On the surface (no pun intended), this is a really big victory - activists have been trying for quite some time to [...]
Unfortunately for me, I’ve got coal on the brain - it means that I’m stressed out and can’t think straight for extended periods of time. Unfortunately for all of us, a bunch of other people have coal on the brain, too. The first big news is that the EPA signed [...]
