Citizens Object To State Of Kentucky’s Backroom Deal With Coal Company

[limpyhobbler]

Frankfort, Kentucky–A coalition of citizens’ groups hoping to protect Kentucky’s waters filed objections today to a proposed settlement between Kentucky’s Energy and Environment Cabinet and one of the state’s largest coal mining companies, Frasure Creek Mining. The agreement purports to resolve hundreds of water pollution violations from 2011 and 2012 at all of Frasure Creek’s mines across eastern Kentucky, but the groups say that the agreement will not fix the pollution problems.

“We are full parties to this enforcement action yet we had no say in it whatsoever,” said Peter Harrison of Waterkeeper Alliance. “Our names are at the top of the document as though we agreed to it, but it was crafted entirely behind closed doors without us. This is an end-run around citizens’ rights to due process. The cabinet continues to make every effort to exclude citizens and aid those who choose to dump poisonous chemicals into our water supply.”

The citizens’ groups—Appalachian Voices, Kentuckians For The Commonwealth, Kentucky Riverkeeper, Waterkeeper Alliance, and several individual citizens are represented by Mary Cromer of the Appalachian Citizens’ Law Center (Whitesburg), Lauren Waterworth of Waterworth Law Office (Boone, NC), and the Pace Law School Environmental Litigation Clinic (White Plains, NY). The groups’ members are concerned that the agreement is too lenient, and will not ensure that Frasure Creek will clean up its pollution problems.

The citizens’ objection letter, filed in the state administrative court, states:

Approval of this Agreed Order would not appropriately penalize Frasure Creek or deter future violations, but instead it punishes the citizens of Kentucky. The Agreed Order sends a message to Frasure Creek and other coal companies that they can come into Kentucky, enjoy a near amnesty from state and federal environmental regulation, plunder the state’s natural resources, annihilate mountains and destroy rivers and streams, endanger the lives of the people living downstream, all before leaving without being held accountable for the destruction they have wrought. To enter the Agreed Order would be to endorse to this shameful scam.

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from http://appvoices.org/2013/02/01/citizens-object-to-state-of-kentucky%E2%80%99s-backroom-deal-with-coal-company

[get the red out]

1. No other voices allowed but coal

We have official Kentucky license plates that say "Friend of Coal" on them. I usually see them on gigantic SUVs. I hate those license plates.