Coal Industry

Dear Editor, We must be serious and responsible in facing the threat of global warming. Climate change means drought, diminished food supplies, expanding deserts, violent storms, loss of the coral reef, extinction and forced migration of people. Leland Conway's claim that the threat of global warming is "trumped up" to "scare us into paying higher taxes" and "lining the pockets of Al Gore's green hedge fund," is both implausible and irresponsible. If Conway wants to contradict the conclusions of the United States Environmental Protection Agency, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, NASA, the president, as well as almost all of the major scientific institutions and governments of the world, he ought to name the scientists and studies he is using to draw his conclusions.

Dear Editor, Republicans made their share of mistakes when they were in power, but most people have forgotten that Democrats have been running the show for almost four years — not two years, as you constantly hear. However, the “hope and change” we heard incessantly two years ago has now turned into anxiety and fear. In just a short 20 months, we have seen what a Democratically-controlled Congress and executive branch did to bring our beloved country to the brink of all-out socialism.

The recent announcement from Arch Coal that it will be laying off hundreds of Kentucky workers has reignited a favorite strawman of wealthy business interests: regulation. While corporations and supposedly free-market capitalists love to demonize regulations as always bad for business, in reality most of them actually support and benefit from many regulations themselves. Kentucky opthalmologists have fought tooth and nail to try and keep regulations that prevented optometrists from performing certain eye procedures.

The overall employment rate in Boyle County increased by nearly 3 percent between June and September 2012, according to reports compiled by the Boyle County Industrial Foundation and the Danville-Boyle County Economic Development Partnership. The rate of both industrial and non-industrial employment also is increasing, according to the reports. Jody Lassiter, EDP president, said the statistics are a good representation of steadily increasing employment trends but are not an exact science.

Repaving leaves nearby street a mess Dear editor, My letter today is to determine how the city of Winchester can be proud to use the Allen Company for repaving of streets. They may do a good job on the upper scale neighborhoods' streets and roads but when it comes to the east side streets they are pathetic. If you want to see a example you need to drive down Baldwin Avenue. When you get to Baldwin you will notice the deplorable mess they left from Oct. 19. They left big black oil stains and roadway debris everywhere and made my street - which was clean and in good shape - end up looking like the blacktop facility where all the blacktop is made and loaded.

“Big Coal makes us sick.” That was the message printed on bright orange signs held by activists at a rally on the banks of the Kentucky River in Clark County Saturday morning. The signs had a double meaning. Just days after the media reported results of a study linking pollutants from mountaintop removal mining to a higher incidence of birth defects, members of the Sierra Club and other groups called on Gov. Steve Beshear’s administration to do a better job of enforcing the federal Clean Water Act. They also demanded that politicians clean up their act with regard to coal company influence.

As the Kentucky General Assembly begins a new session this year, state Rep. Don Pasley, D-Winchester, is again pushing an effort to mitigate the effects of mountaintop removal coal mining on Kentucky streams. In December, Pasley filed what is known as the "stream saver" bill, legislation that would prohibit coal companies from dumping mining wastes into any Kentucky waterway. Proponents say the practice is now common, though recent litigation in Kentucky and West Virginia have slowed the granting of permits.

“Fairness” is a term getting thrown around during the current campaign season more than a football at a Cards vs. Cats game.  President Obama has even made it the centerpiece of his re-election campaign, using rhetoric filled with talk of “fairness” but nothing about “freedom.” One of his standard lines pines for “an economy where everyone gets a fair shot” and “everyone does their fair share.” But the question I...

How could you do this to us Ben? You have brazenly turned your back on Kentucky. We've drawn the line over your "yea" vote for cap and trade. You have lost our confidence completely. Though thoroughly disgusted at your wasteful pleasure trip to the Galapagos Islands last summer on the taxpayer's dime, we grinned and bore it. This kind of misuse of the public treasury is fairly common among your congressional colleagues. But over the last nine months your votes on damaging pieces of legislation have been too much for us to bear.