Kentucky will have a better chance at seeing its $400 million backlog of mine reclamation projects move forward thanks to legislation passed by the U.S. House of Representatives on July 1.
A new report from a diverse set of frontline organizations outlines a set of comprehensive solutions needed to respond to the cascading and interlocking crises our communities face, including the climate crisis, COVID-19, and structural racism and inequality.
The report, A People’s Orientation to a Regenerative Economy, offers community groups, policy advocates, and policymakers a pathway to solutions that work for frontline communities and workers. These ideas have been collectively strategized by community organizations, including KFTC, and leaders from across multiple frontline and grassroots networks and alliances to ensure that regenerative economic solutions and ecological justice.
Members of Kentuckians For The Commonwealth have built connections with allies across the Ohio River valley over the past few years around the fight to protect ORSANCO's regulatory mission.
In January, KFTC and several ally groups launched a paid media campaign – including 10 billboards plus radio, newspaper and digital ads in central and eastern Kentucky – calling on members of Congress to stand up for coal miners and communities by passing a package of Just Transition bills in 2020.
Communities across the Ohio Valley are among an estimated 2 million people in the U.S. who do not have consistent access to clean drinking water and basic indoor plumbing, according to a report by two nonprofits, DigDeep and the US Water Alliance.
Flash floods have troubled Kentucky for decades. Now, extreme rainstorms are worsening with climate change, increasing the odds of more disasters like the one Bentley’s community endured. For Kentucky’s poorest residents, the people living in flood-prone hollows with surface mines nearby, that means an ever-present threat to both life and hard-won possessions.
The Wilderness Trace KFTC Chapter hosted a celebration of Herrington Lake on September 14. Community members ate hot dogs and learned about a variety of community resources for protecting the water quality of Herrington Lake while listening to Conrad Shiba and Joel Klepac play Bluegrass music. Electricity for the celebration was provided by Wilderness Trace Solar.
State dignitaries came to Inez last Thursday bearing gifts. Before a select group of invited luminaries from the state and local government, they announced money “they” would bestow upon Martin County.
Not a single coal company formed in Kentucky within the past five years has posted a bond required by state law to protect miner’s wages if their employer suddenly shuts down, according to records obtained by the Lexington Herald-Leader. In addition, officials in Gov. Mat Bevin’s administration urged lawmakers last year to pass a bill that would have eliminated the requirement.
