[Coach_Owens87]

Can you give me the permit numbers of the jobs that you visited, so I can verify their Post Mining Land Use Plan.

Eastern Kentucky does have the highest poverty rates in the state, but how can you blame the the poverty issue on the major industryfor the region. What would our economic sitution here be if there had never been any coal mining? The poverty issue is not the fault of the coal companies, the average miner will make over $50,000 to $65,000 annually.

Little ole me, an all knowing and wise man.......thank you very much for your admiration it really means a lot to me.

Yes I can look up the permits and give them to you.

As for as the poverty issue, yes I can lay blame on the coal industry. They have dominated this region for over 100 years, and really have isolated the region to any more job opportunities. But yet coal companies claim that they help this region so much, when in reality they don't.

You ask where our economy would be without coal, and my answer is that it would be in the same shape. By simply comparing average family income, and poverty rate between coal producing and non coal producing counties you really get the same numbers. Here are some examples.

Compare coal producing counties in the region to non-producing counties.

Coal Producing:
Knott county: Pop. 17,649
Average income for household: $20,733
Percent of people below poverty line: 31.10%

Perry County: Pop. 29,390
Average income: $22,809
Below poverty line: 29.10%


Non Coal producing:
Powell County: Pop. 13,273
Average income for household: $25,515
Percent below poverty line: 23.50%

Rowan County: Pop. 22,094
Average income: $28,055
Below poverty line: 21.30%

All info from wikipedia.

As you can see coal makes no noticeable difference at all to a counties economy. Another lie from the coal companies.