Twenty-three years ago, Chief Arvol Looking Horse, the 19th generation Keeper of the White Buffalo Calf Pipe Bundle, began traveling the world conducting World Peace and Prayer Day. It takes place every annual summer solstice due to it’s sacredness among all cultures, to unite people of all faiths and nations to join hands in a day of prayer dedicated towards Mother Earth.
On June 6, the current standards set by the Ohio River Valley Sanitation Commission (ORSANCO) for monitoring water quality in the Ohio River became voluntary. Only two of the commissioners representing eight member states and the federal government voted against the measure.
An enthusiastic and diverse crowd turned out on May 11 at an event in Frankfort in support of a Just Transition to a clean energy economy and a Green New Deal for workers and communities.
The main event, a stop on a eight-city tour organized by the Sunrise Movement, was planned in partnership with KFTC and Service Employees International Union (SEIU) 32BJ. The event featured State Rep. Attica Scott, KFTC members Kevin Short, Cassia Herron and Scott Shoupe, Sunrise Louisville Hub member Jenny Bencomo Suarez, Sunrise Executive Director Varshini Prakash, Erin Bridges, who plays a leading role in the Sunrise Louisville Hub and on the national Sunrise Steering Committee; and music by Appalatin.
After reintroduction in April, the bipartisan RECLAIM Act was debated and voted on during the May 1 House Natural Resources Committee markup, where the bill was passed out of committee on a bipartisan basis.
At the end of March, several KFTC members and staff traveled to Albuquerque, New Mexico to represent KFTC at the 2019 Member Convening of the Climate Justice Alliance.
CJA is a diverse yet aligned coalition of communities on the frontline of the climate crisis from across the country and world working for a Just Transition.
The member convening was a similar to KFTC's annual membership meeting – combining voting on key proposals and plans for CJA's work by CJA member organizations, with valuable moments of collective learning, relationship building and deepening alignment.
The Ohio River Valley Water Sanitation Commission (ORSANCO) held the last of three hearings on Monday, April 8, to gather public input on its latest proposal to change its mandate to monitor and enforce clean water standards on the river. The previous two had been in Pittsburgh on April 1, and Evansville, IN on April 4.
Monitoring would continue under the new proposal, but states could decide whether or not to adopt or enforce the standards. This opened a new front in the fight to protect water in the Ohio River that provides drinking water for more than five million people. Over 75 people gathered at the meeting in Erlanger to voice opposition to the organization’s proposal. KFTC members attended the public hearing along with a broad coalition of individuals, environmental, social justice, religious, public health and civic groups.
For more than a year, KFTC has worked with allies to protect the Ohio River Valley Water Sanitation Commission’s (ORSANCO) mission to clean and protect the Ohio River through monitoring and enforcement. This commission, made up of representatives of the federal government and 8 members states (New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, West Virginia, Virginia, Kentucky, Indiana and Illinois) of ORSANCO maintains pollution control standards that are higher than the EPA or state enforcement agencies.
While these standards have not solved the Ohio River’s pollution issues, it has made considerable progress since the founding in 1948. Yet some political appointees in ORSANCO want to make these essential standards optional for states to enforce, giving states the ability to ignore damage to our water systems that disproportionately impacts lower income people and people of color across the region.
A bill that would have rescinded restrictions on the types of physicians who can diagnose black lung disease will likely not get a vote in the Kentucky House of Representatives this year … The proposal’s likely failure comes amid the largest resurgence of black lung in decades, one that has left more than 20 perc
