[Coach_Owens87]

CO87 Out of my three post on this thread tell me what info. came from Coal Companies.
My carbon footprint info came from 3 different Environmental Sites, the 55,000 trees that were just planted came from my job site, my idea of not buying into purchasing carbon offsets is my personal opinion and you agreed with me that over half of the nations electricity is produced from coal.

CO87 You ask me if I really think that Coal Companies give a crap about me and our region.
I can honestly say yes I do, now let me explain why, some of owners live in this area, some live in other states and some of the larger coal companies are owned by investors either way the Presidents or General Managers that manage the daily operations live in this area. Most Coal Companies give back to their communities, here's a few that I have been involved with: working with 10-15 fellow workers at local schools to paint, repair or install new playground equipment, landscaping, concrete work etc. I have worked for coal companies that were "Partners in Education" this included donating money for school trips, purchasing supplies, they have also taken small equipment to help with the athletic fields.
One company had a employee dress up every year as Santa Clause and they would buy gift to give to the kids. The Coal company paid for everything.
Here a story you will be interested in OC87. Annually since about 1996 our company has hired a contractor to take a back hoe and dump truck and assist the local Watershed Group clear debris from a 3-4 mile section of a large creek that runs through the community. Over the years they have picked up +100 tires, over 80 tons of plastic bottles, plastic bags, dirty diapers and other trash that had washed down stream over the years. Several Coal Companies have projects similar to these.

CO87 you brought up the Coal Severance Tax.
I agree with you, more of the tax monies should be sent to the producing counties, but remember the Coal Companies just pay the tax they have no input on how the money is distributed.

CO87 You say the land has been distroyed?
You may want to run down to the Property Valuation Administrator's office in any county and you will see that reclaimed mining property particularly the level land created by mining is assessed at a higher rate than hillside property.
Eastern Ky and Southern West Virginia have a huge need for flat land above the flood plain. I agree that we need to do a better job of utilizing the reclaimed properties we now have, one thing is that we need is better access to these properties. What manufacture would want to relocate to this area when they have to travel narrow back roads to and from their factory.

CO87 You say my company may plant trees others don't?
All Coal Companies have to have a reclamation plan and a tree planting plan in their mining permit and it has to be approved by the state. There are NO EXCEPTIONS to this law.

CO87 So You say reclaimation is a joke?
I'm not sure what jobs you been on (if any) but we have inspectors in our jobs daily (yes I mean 4 to 5 days a week) checking our mining and reclamation practices. Legally a company is only allowed to distrub a certain percentage of the permitted acreage, after that number is reached they have to have portions of the distrubed area reclaimed before they are allowed to distrub any more acreage. By the way where did you come up with 80% of all mine sites not meeting Federal Requirements come from. Did you pull that number out of your hat also.

CO87 Cheapier and more efficient energy sources?
As I said before I have no problem with alternative energy, but the enviromentalist are wanting to shut mining down today. Tell me if we stop burning coal today what will take it's place tomorrow. As of today solar and wind energy cannot produce 50% of the Nations electricity. My suggestion is to develop another source of energy that can replace coal before kicking it into the weeds.

The law does require you to reclaim land, im not disagreeing. But there is ways around the law, believe it or not. From the newest data 80% of all mined land reclamation does not meet the standards set by the law (http://www.grist.org/news/maindish/2006/02/16/reece/ this came from a book by Erik Reece, a professor at UK, his book one several awards. this is where most of my info came from, the rest should be contianed in my last post), remember the law states that the land must be put back to the original or better shape, unless the company can provide plans for future economic development at the end of the mining. This is the loophole that a lot of companies use. It's all in the SMCRA.

The number I gave for buried streams was incorrect, here is the ESTIMATE by the epa "The U.S. EPA estimates that over 700 miles of healthy streams have been completely buried by mountaintop removal and thousands more have been damaged" ( from above link)

Now I know some coal companies are locally owned, but where does the money go. Here is one example of how we are being used. last year American power plants burned over a billion tons of coal, accounting for over 50 percent of this country's electricity use. In Kentucky, 80 percent of the harvested coal is sold and shipped to 22 other states. (Above link) So we are destroying our land to feed the power needs of the rest of the country. Isnt it time we got something back for what we have given up. I think so, but we arent, with all that money we could really help this area, get better schools, better roads, and better medical facilites, more jobs. But none of that is happening. WE get a wal-mart and everyone thinks were "high and mighty." It's called neocolonalism, and it's happening to us. We are so dependent on coal that we cant do without it. So they basically have the power to do what they want to us.
Why are the top coal producing counties among the poorest counties in the nation?
I'm glad we agree on the coal severance tax, it's a shame that hard working people like yourself bust their butt, but yet none of the money promised to us ever makes it back. and when it does it is wasted, just like the industrial park in hazard, which cost around 30 million, it now has only 1 business.

"in Kentucky where I live, coal-related employment has dropped 60 percent in the last 15 years" (same source) it takes very few people to run a strip mine. SO actually MTR is worse for the miner
I think you should read his book, LOST MOUNTAIN, it gives a very detailed unbaised look at the coal industry.

We can sit and argue all day and not get anywhere. Go take a look at google earth, it's free to download. They have a special feature under "Global Awareness" called Memorial for the mountains. It shows before and after pics of some active MTR sites. These photos are high resolution and up to date. Just look at all the strip mines and see what the reclamation being done looks like. Im sure you will see why I call it a joke.

Today Massey energy is trying to put valley fills in nearby streams after a judge ruled that thier practices are illegal. this a great example of what I was saying, they don't really give a crap about the environment.