Obama mountaintop removal decision coming ‘very soon’

For several years, KFTC members have had an ongoing conversation with U.S. Rep Ben Chandler about coal, water and energy issues, but especially about mountaintop removal mining. That included a mountaintop removal tour last year where Chandler was accompanied by Rep. Norm Dicks, who holds a key committee chairmanship.

KFTC members with Rep. Ben Chandler in 2006. We presented him with a copy of the book Missing Mountains, and have been back several times to follow up that conversation.

Of course, Chandler knows well the cost of the abuse of land and people by coal. Several communities in his Central Kentucky district get their drinking water from the Kentucky River and have to pay extra to treat the water because of the pollution from coal mining upstream. Tourism activities are hurt because the river is usually unappealing for swimming and water recreation. And Lexington was determined to have the heaviest carbon footprint of the 100 largest cities in the nation (on a per capita basis), largely because electricity in Kentucky comes mainly from coal burning.

In 2006, Chandler became the first legislator from a coalfield state to cosponsor the Clean Water Protection Act, which would prohibit the dumping of mining wastes into the nation's streams. This year, he again cosponsored the reintroduction of the CWPA, issuing this statement:

"The Clean Water Protection Act is much-needed legislation to safeguard Kentucky’s fragile streams and creeks while maintaining a strong and viable coal industry. In these hard economic times, Kentucky enjoys some of the lowest energy costs in the nation. However, we don’t have to sacrifice our environment, our watershed and our communities to do so.â€

The education and persistence by KFTC members paid off again on Wednesday when Chandler pressed Nancy Sutley, chairwoman of the White House Council on Environmental Quality. for answers about the Obama's position on mountaintop removal. You can read a transcript of that exchange and WV Gazette reporter Ken Ward's report here.

The Obama position is still weak and lacks an understanding of the deeper issues underlying the destruction of the Appalachian coalfields. You can send a message to President Obama that mountaintop removal coal mining needs to end immediately and decisively. Here is the contact information:

Online email form: www.whitehouse.gov/contact/

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