Hundreds decry mountaintop removal at Capitol rally
After a rally at the Capitol steps, people marched to the Governor's Mansion on I Love Mountains Day at the Capitol in Frankfort, Ky., on Feb. 14, 2012. Photo by Pablo Alcala | Staff
By Jack Brammer
jbrammer@herald-leader.com
FRANKFORT – Several hundred people gathered on the front steps of the Capitol Tuesday in a cold, steady drizzle to send a message to coal executives and public officials that “what you do to the land you do to the people.”
The setting was the seventh annual “I Love Mountains” day in Frankfort, organized by the statewide activist group Kentuckians for the Commonwealth.
As the rally unfolded, large trucks with signs touting the coal industry circled around the Capitol.
Bill Bissett, president of the Kentucky Coal Association, said the trucks were from Friends of Coal of Kentucky, highlighting the 50,000 pro-coal license plates on personal vehicles across the state, and the Faces of Kentucky Coal campaign that has expressed concern about the policies of the Obama administration and their effect on coal-field jobs.
Speakers and many at the rally bemoaned mountaintop removal. Several carried signs that read, “There is No Planet B,” “Savor Our Streams,” and “Topless Mountains Are Obscene.”
Steve Boyce, chairperson for Kentuckians for the Commonwealth and a retired Berea College professor, said the environmental movement to preserve land is growing.
He noted the presence of high school students from across the state at the rally and said weekly sit-ins in front of the governor’s office will continue. More than 200 people have been involved in the sit-ins over the past year, he said.
Terri Blanton, a KFTC fellow and spokesperson who grew up in a coal mining family in Harlan County, urged state legislators to approve House Bill 167, which encourages clean energy policies, conservation and the use of renewable resources. It was introduced Jan. 3 by state Rep. Mary Lou Marzian, D-Louisville, but has had no committee action.
This year’s guest speaker was Melina Laboucan-Massimo, a member of the Cree First Nation in northern Alberta, Canada. She is an opponent of tar sands extraction to get oil and has been a key leader in the national fight against the Keystone XL pipeline that would stretch across the U.S.
She told the group, “Our struggles are the same.”
At the end of the rally, the speakers and crowd marched around the Capitol and then to the Governor’s Mansion, where many stuck colorful pinwheels into the lawn.
Jerry Hardt, KFTC communications director, said the pinwheels represented the health impact of mountaintop removal. People all over Kentucky helped make the 1,200 pinwheels, each representing 50 people who have cancer linked to coal mining, he said.
Bissett, wearing an “I Love Coal” button, said Kentuckians who hear the “I Love Mountains” cry against mountaintop removal, a controversial method of extracting coal, should realize that half of the coal from Eastern Kentucky is from surface-mining methods.
“While these anti-coal activists often talk about mountaintop mining, I believe they often mean all surface mining. That will affect everything from coal severance tax to opportunities for Eastern Kentuckians to feed their families,” Bissett said.
Filed Under: KY General Assembly • State Government
About the Author: 
When you come home and turn on the LIGHTS the question is , where does the JUICE” come from , how is the Electric Power generated? There are some that are so blind as to what is such a general way of life and do not think of where and why we have
Electic Power in Kentucky or matter of fact most of the US is powered by some form of Coal , Gas and or Oil. Lets be mindful of what and why and how long it will take to find a Subtitute for COAL and OIL? Years maybe even 50 to 100 years to create the knowledge
and the Money too find something of equal energy to Coal!
Think about this when one goes without Power for even ONE DAY!
I love mountains. I also love the people who live in the mountains who need jobs. I love being able to live with modern conveniences that are powered by electricity, such as heating and cooling, refrigeration, entertainment, etc. But most of all I love that in the United States, property owners have rights to do with their land as they see fit. If someone owns a mountain and wants to take the top off of it to extract the coal, who is anyone else to tell them they can’t?
“Kentuckians For The Communists.” KFTC did good work when they were the Fair Tax Coalition. Now, not so much. Just another group of wanna-be elitists who can’t be too elite because they come from Louisa or Harlan or Elkhorn City.
Thanks so much to Kentuckians For The Commonwealth and their leaders on this issue who live with the terrible consequences of bomb-and-bury mining in Eastern KY.
It takes a lot to stand up to the coal industry leaders and to do the right thing like you do.
That’s right. Property owners have rights to do with their land as they see fit… but a coal company blasted my friend’s house off it’s foundation and killed the child of a family friend of mine. Neither of those families gave permission to coal companies that largely operate lawlessly in my community, taking health, land, and life from others as they see fit to get richer.
A lot of my friends are also coal miners and we need to find something better for them to do with their lives.
It’s a hard problem, but it’s clear that the coal companies shouldn’t be allowed to destroy our homes like they do.
Jacob, I am sorry that those things happened, but that is why there are courts and the legal system. If you set a fire on your own property to burn brush and it escapes your boundaries, you are responsible for that damage. Similarly, if the coal company’s actions on their own property damage someone else’s property, they are responsible. Accidents happen.