{"id":4353,"date":"2016-10-31T16:19:16","date_gmt":"2016-10-31T22:19:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/valleywatch.net\/?p=4353"},"modified":"2016-10-31T16:19:16","modified_gmt":"2016-10-31T22:19:16","slug":"kentuckians-can-handle-the-truth-the-coal-truth-and-nothing-but-the-truth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/valleywatch.net\/?p=4353","title":{"rendered":"Kentuckians can handle the truth, the coal truth and nothing but the truth"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>October 28, 2016 &#8211; Editorial in the<a href=\"http:\/\/www.kentucky.com\/opinion\/editorials\/article111089952.html#storylink=cpy\"> Lexington Herald Leader<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Give Gov. Matt Bevin\u2019s environmental secretary credit. When asked about the prospects for Eastern Kentucky\u2019s coal industry, he was honest \u2014 unlike all the misleading political ads and mailings that are bombarding Kentuckians.<\/p>\n<p>What Secretary Charles Snavely\u00a0<a title=\"\" href=\"http:\/\/wkms.org\/post\/kentucky-energy-secretary-coals-short-term-future#stream\/0\" target=\"_blank\">said<\/a>\u00a0was important, but how he prefaced it is even more enlightening in this election season.<\/p>\n<div id=\"related-gallery\" class=\"reorder_story-target_2 reorder\">\n<div id=\"slick-gallery-container-40711878\" class=\"mi-slick-gallery-container clearfix\">\n<div class=\"preroll-container\" data-uniqueid=\"40711878\">\n<div class=\"slick-gallery slick-initialized slick-slider\">\n<div class=\"slick-list draggable\" tabindex=\"0\">\n<div class=\"slick-track\">\n<div class=\"gallery-item image slick-slide slick-active\" data-slick-index=\"0\">\n<div style=\"width: 330px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" title=\"Charles G. Snavely, secretary of the Kentucky Energy and Environment Cabinet\" src=\"http:\/\/www.kentucky.com\/opinion\/editorials\/tgoyhq\/picture111089932\/ALTERNATES\/FREE_320\/Charles%20G.%20Snavely\" alt=\"Charles G. Snavely, secretary of the Kentucky Energy and Environment Cabinet\" width=\"320\" height=\"400\" data-preload=\"http:\/\/www.kentucky.com\/opinion\/editorials\/tgoyhq\/picture111089932\/ALTERNATES\/FREE_320\/Charles%20G.%20Snavely\" \/><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Charles G. Snavely, secretary of the Kentucky Energy and Environment Cabinet<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"gallery-counter-container\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>When asked by a lawmaker at a meeting in February if there is hope for a coal-industry rebound in Central Appalachia,\u00a0<a title=\"\" href=\"http:\/\/www.ket.org\/legislature\/?archive&amp;program=WGAOS&amp;epoch=2016&amp;nola=WGAOS+017076\" target=\"_blank\">Snavely said,<\/a>\u00a0\u201cI regret you ask me that question in a public forum because if you ask me a question, I\u2019m going to give you the answer.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>OK. He seems to be saying Kentuckians can\u2019t handle the truth. But why? What myth is it so important to perpetuate?<\/p>\n<p>Snavely, a mining engineer and former coal-company executive, went on to say that he sees no rebound for Eastern Kentucky\u2019s coal jobs anytime soon.<\/p>\n<p>He based his prediction on world economic conditions, cheap natural gas and an uncertain regulatory environment that discourages electrical utilities from building new coal-fired capacity.<\/p>\n<p>Plus, thermal (the kind for power production) coal from Eastern Kentucky has a unique market disadvantage. Because the remaining seams are thin, it costs more to mine, which means it can\u2019t compete on price with coal from other regions, including the Illinois Basin, Wyoming, Montana and even Northern Appalachia \u2014 all of which produce cheaper coal than Eastern Kentucky.<\/p>\n<p>That honest opinion from a Republican governor\u2019s appointee echoes what a utility executive told the Kentucky Governor\u2019s Conference on Energy and Environment in Lexington last month.<\/p>\n<p>Natural gas is expected to overtake coal this year as the country\u2019s No. 1 source of power and could continue to underprice coal for the next 20 to 50 years. Kentucky Power chief\u00a0<a title=\"\" href=\"http:\/\/www.kentucky.com\/news\/politics-government\/article105915852.html\" target=\"_blank\">Greg Pauley<\/a>\u00a0said that because natural gas and wind energy are \u201cthe price winners,\u201d demand for coal isn\u2019t coming back \u201cno matter who is elected in November.\u201d<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>Yet, Republicans from Donald Trump right down the ballot to Kentucky legislative candidates are holding out false promises that the outcome of this election can bring back coal jobs. They\u2019re even accusing pro-coal Democrats like House Speaker Greg Stumbo, who never saw a strip mine he didn\u2019t like, of waging \u201cwar on coal.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>And they revile the few Democrats \u2014 presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and congressional challenger Nancy Jo Kemper \u2014 who are telling the truth and offering concrete ideas for creating new jobs and opportunities.<\/p>\n<p>Kentuckians have every right to be disillusioned with a long line of politicians, from both parties, who have bowed before a single powerful industry that would tolerate no new industries or businesses that might compete for workers to fill its dangerous jobs.<\/p>\n<p>Coal-mine\u00a0<a title=\"\" href=\"http:\/\/energy.ky.gov\/Coal%20Facts%20Library\/Kentucky%20Coal%20Facts%20-%2016th%20Edition%20(2016).pdf\" target=\"_blank\">employment<\/a>\u00a0in Kentucky peaked around 1950 and \u2014 except for a spurt in the 1970s \u2014 has been steadily declining ever since. Everyone knew this day would come. Future generations will marvel that those in power did so little to prepare for it and waited so long to begin building a diverse economy in the mountains.<\/p>\n<p>Kentuckians can handle the truth, if only more politicians respected them enough to speak it. Voters who fall for promises, implied or express, to bring back coal jobs will be pinning their votes and their hopes to an illusion.<\/p>\n<div>\nRead more here: http:\/\/www.kentucky.com\/opinion\/editorials\/article111089952.html#storylink=cpy<\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on the_content --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on the_content -->","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>October 28, 2016 &#8211; Editorial in the Lexington Herald Leader Give Gov. Matt Bevin\u2019s environmental secretary credit. When asked about the prospects for Eastern Kentucky\u2019s coal industry, he was honest \u2014 unlike all the misleading political ads and mailings that &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/valleywatch.net\/?p=4353\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on get_the_excerpt --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on get_the_excerpt --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4353","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/valleywatch.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4353","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/valleywatch.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/valleywatch.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/valleywatch.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/valleywatch.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4353"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/valleywatch.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4353\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4354,"href":"http:\/\/valleywatch.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4353\/revisions\/4354"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/valleywatch.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4353"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/valleywatch.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4353"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/valleywatch.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4353"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}