EPA's Clean Air ruling lashes coal-producing Kentucky

[Ichingcarpenter]

Source: McClatchy Newspapers

WASHINGTON — The Environmental Protection Agency's declaration Monday that carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas emissions endanger the public's health could deeply impact Kentucky's coal economy.

The announcement, which comes as an historic climate change conference gets under way in Copenhagen, could set the groundwork for broader cap-and-trade policies in the U.S. — the kinds of policies the state's coal companies and most of the state's congressional delegation have long tried to block.

“What his arbitrary administrative edict would do is what Congress has refused to do statutorily — tell coal-burning utilities how much, or little, coal can be burned,” said Rep. Hal Rogers, a Republican whose district blankets coal-rich eastern Kentucky. “It could prove devastating to Kentucky’s coal industry and cause havoc to our working men and women of eastern Kentucky.”

Meanwhile, Kentucky environmentalists lauded the EPA’s announcement as a first step toward addressing global warming and curbing pollution.

Read more: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/homepage/story/80215.html

[Mithreal]

1. Report: Coal industry costs Kentucky more than it pays in taxes

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/260/story/70747.html

[Ichingcarpenter]

2. Email suggests coal company influenced official’s firing

When Ron Mills was fired last month as head of Kentucky's Division of Mine Permits, he said it was partly because he wouldn't allow coal mining companies to dig on land to which they don't have a right. Now, a Kentucky newspaper has uncovered an email that indicates Mills may have been telling the truth, and raises serious questions about the relationship between private energy companies and their government regulators.

The Lexington Herald-Leader has obtained an email written by an Alliance Coal executive that announced Mills' firing moments after the firing happened. The email also predicted who would replace Mills later that day as the person responsible for issuing mine permits in the state.

"Ron Mills will be asked to resign this morning and will be replaced by Allen Luttrell on an acting basis," wrote Alliance Coal manager of permitting Raymond Ashcraft, according to the Herald-Leader. The email was sent at 9:24 a.m. on Nov. 13.

"Minutes earlier, Mills said in an interview Sunday, he was pulled aside in Frankfort and fired as director of the Division of Mine Permits. Later that day, his deputy, Luttrell, was named as his acting replacement," the Herald-Leader reported.

At issue is a policy known as the "two-thirds rule," which allows mining companies in Kentucky to mine on land even if they don't have the right to access part of the land. Under the rule, companies can get a mining permit so long as they have the right to access two-thirds of the land they plan to mine.

http://rawstory.com/2009/12/kentucky-coal-email/

[era veteran]

3. Our fish are full of mercury

Tobacco gone, coal bad, well that leaves us bourbon and weed production. Cheap electricity from coal is only cheap on the front side. The DINO governor sees no problem with firing Mills. He does what he is told. Coal mining sucks.

[Kolesar]

4. Southeast Ohio has been "emptying out" for years

Coal mines played out and mining jobs were replaced by automation and other capital improvements.

[Ichingcarpenter]

5. This Post and story was 7 hours before the deadline on LBNs

yet it was moved

I call bullshit

[Mithreal]

6. It may have essentially qualified as a duplicate.

Since it was specific to Kentucky, it was different enough not to be combined.

What do you think?