More letters against CTL from KFTC members

We had some more great letters from KFTC members in the Courier Journal yesterday and today.  Our push for letters from members is really paying off.  If you haven't already, please take a moment to write to your local paper opposing coal-to-liquid technology.

Watch your wallets . . ..

Hold on to your wallets. Gov. Ernie Fletcher has called a special session of our General Assembly to dole out millions of your tax dollars to subsidize liquid coal.

Writing in William F. Buckley Jr.'s arch-conservative magazine The National Review, Jerry Taylor of the CATO Institute calls the coal-to-liquids proposal "a re-embrace of one of the worst financial boondoggles of the 1970's -- synthetic fuels."

The Wall Street Journal calls liquid coal "the biggest corporate welfare scheme in U.S. history" and says that "taxpayers will be the biggest losers." Liquefying coal won't lower the price at the pump, but it will raise your taxes. And if our General Assembly passes liquid coal subsidies, you can kiss the mountains of Eastern Kentucky goodbye forever.

I urge all Kentuckians to drop whatever they are doing to oppose Gov. Fletcher's taxpayer subsidies for liquid coal.

Dave Cooper
Lexington, Ky. 40505

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. . . Adjourn quickly

Gov. Ernie Fletcher would like a special session of the legislature to discuss wasting millions of dollars in subsidies on a coal-to-liquid plant boondoggle (a policy the U.S. Senate was savvy enough to reject recently).

Pursuing coal-to-liquid technology would result in an ecological nightmare…. Even worse, producing coal-to-liquid fuel will actually increase global warming. Producing it generates twice the amount of carbon dioxide as petroleum-based fuels.

On the most basic level, we should be pursuing alternatives that make us less dependent on fossil fuels, not more.

I call on Fletcher to not waste our precious state resources on this flim-flam. If the Governor should insist, then our legislators should resist and, in any case, vote to adjourn the special session as soon as it opens (wasting only the $60,000 spent for an abortive one-day session instead of possible millions).

David Anderson
Lexington, Ky. 40515

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'Horrible disservice'

Gov. Ernie Fletcher has done a horrible disservice to Kentuckians by giving more than $2 million of state money to coal-to-liquid projects.

Fuel made from coal is not cheap or good for the environment. One ton of coal only produces 2 barrels of fuel.

Over 430 miles of Kentucky streams have already been buried because of mountaintop removal mining, and coal-based fuels produce twice as much carbon dioxide as petroleum-based diesel fuels.

We don't need to destroy the environment to become energy independent.

We need to urge our politicians to invest in sustainable and renewable energy and to stop wasting our tax dollars on King Coal.

Beth Bissmeyer

Louisville 40215

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