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Have you got any facts or logic to post, or is this type of idiocy all you've got?
No one seemed to have a problem when the government spent billions developing nuclear energy. No one seemed to have any problems expanding the electrical grid all across the country by providing development money to build coal fired plants all across the country. And yet here we are in the 21st century seeing pundants opposed to clean energy, as if they can't give up their addiction to petro-fumes. Which leads me to think these deniers might all by toluene sniffers. That makes more sense than any other explanation I've seen.
In the days when nuclear power was developed, almost everyone was a socialist. Nowadays, a lot of people have wized up. Furthermore, the government doesn't provide "development money" to build coal fired power plants. They are entirely privately financed. So your post is basically a load of horseshit. All you can do is make nasty aspersions about people who know a con when they encounter one.
Coal is the BIGGEST corporate welfare recipient in the country.
The taxpayers of Kentucky LOSE money subsidizing coal.
Report Coal industry costs state government GreenSpot Kentucky.com
In its latest study, MACED determined that coal delivered $527 million to the state in 2006, mostly through coal severance, corporate income, sales and vehicle taxes, plus taxes on 17,903 people employed in mining and 52,429 people in jobs that depend on mining.
The same year, MACED said, the coal industry cost the state $642 million.
This includes $239 million for frequent repairs to about 3,800 miles in the coal-haul road system, where trucks weighing up to 120,000 pounds crush the pavement as they carry coal from mines to tipples, trains, barges and power plants. Companies purchase state decals for the right to run coal trucks overweight, but that revenue offsets very little of the cost of road repairs.
Unknown to most taxpayers, MACED said, the state also gives the coal industry a variety of tax breaks, subsidizes the regulatory agencies that deal with its impact and even pays for pro-coal materials through a "coal education program" aimed at schoolchildren.
The severance taxes and mine permit fees the industry pays Frankfort to cover its costs have not increased in about 30 years. Of top coal-producing states, Kentucky gets the least from severance taxes — 2.9 percent of its tax income, compared with 7.1 percent for neighboring West Virginia.
Generations of Kentucky politicians have felt obliged to keep the coal industry happy, and that is reflected in the state's fiscal policy, said Ron Eller, an Appalachian historian at the University of Kentucky.
"The coal industry's resources are often used to support candidates, especially in Eastern Kentucky, who are favorable to its interests," Eller said. "To refuse to take coal money, or to speak out against coal's interests, often results in the defeat of a candidate."
The coal industry spent more than $1 million on state political donations in recent years and $255,145 to lobby the last two legislative sessions. Several top Kentucky lawmakers either own coal mines, hold white-collar posts at coal companies or do private business with coal.
How many times do these claims have to be debunked? I know, I'll be debunking them until the day an ice sheet is about to flatten New York.
The source of your information is an organization called MACED. I looked up their website, and they listed the following as some of their activities:
MACED Overview
Strengthening Key Sectors — Energy
• Energy Efficient Enterprises — Helping enterprises become more energy efficient and avoid the impact of rising energy costs while reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
• How$martKY — Working with electric cooperatives to fund energy efficiency retrofits for homes and businesses.
• Kentucky Sustainable Energy Alliance — Advancing state policy that supports investment in energy efficiency and renewable energy.
Influencing Kentucky’s economic policy and advancing an Appalachian transition
Too often, state and federal policies inadequately support needed services and sustainable development, subsidize harmful development or ignore the unique concerns and needs of Central Appalachia. To achieve change at scale, public policy must shift.
• Appalachian Transition Initiative — Advance the regional conversation about the need, potential and path toward a more just, sustainable and prosperous future.
• Kentucky Center for Economic Policy — Conducting research, analysis and education on state fiscal and economic policy issues.
• Research and Policy — Providing information and analysis to help citizens and decision makers understand the challenges, issues and opportunities facing Kentucky and Central Appalachia.
In short, this organization sounds like your typical leftist propaganda and lobbying operation. It has no credibility.
I could go down the list it's claims and point out the flaws in each one, but I seldom bother. These leftwing operations all lie. You can't believe anything they say.
"Truth will do well enough if left to shift for herself. She seldom has received much aid from the power of great men to whom she is rarely known & seldom welcome. She has no need of force to procure entrance into the minds of men. Error indeed has often prevailed by the assistance of power or force. Truth is the proper & sufficient antagonist to error.
Thomas Jefferson
'A complete picture'
Maxson said MACED favored the coal industry in several ways while conducting its study.
It did not account for costs related to air and water polluted by mining and coal-fired power plants, or workers sickened or crippled by coal jobs. It credited the industry for the full $224 million in coal severance taxes paid that year (after $18 million in special deductions), although half that money went to coal-producing counties and did not stay in the state's general fund.
Also, because MACED looked at 2006 data, it did not count the hundreds of millions of dollars in coal incentives approved during a special session of the legislature in 2007 at the request of Peabody Energy Corp. Like half of its fellow members in the Kentucky Coal Association, Peabody — which last year reported record cash flows — mines Kentucky coal but is headquartered in another state.
"Our purpose here isn't to beat up on coal," Maxson said. "It's education. We want to lay out a complete picture so our elected leaders can make informed decisions about how we proceed with our energy policy, our economic development policy and our fiscal policy."
Coal counties poorest
For all the wealth that coal produced over the last century, Eastern Kentucky's coal counties remain among the nation's poorest, Maxson said. Destructive mining practices, such as mountaintop removal, sacrifice the region's natural beauty, and with it other possible employers, such as tourism, he said.
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MACED is a leftwing propaganda organ. Nothing it says is credible.Have you got any facts or logic to post, or is this type of idiocy all you've got?
No one seemed to have a problem when the government spent billions developing nuclear energy. No one seemed to have any problems expanding the electrical grid all across the country by providing development money to build coal fired plants all across the country. And yet here we are in the 21st century seeing pundants opposed to clean energy, as if they can't give up their addiction to petro-fumes. Which leads me to think these deniers might all by toluene sniffers. That makes more sense than any other explanation I've seen.
In the days when nuclear power was developed, almost everyone was a socialist. Nowadays, a lot of people have wized up. Furthermore, the government doesn't provide "development money" to build coal fired power plants. They are entirely privately financed. So your post is basically a load of horseshit. All you can do is make nasty aspersions about people who know a con when they encounter one.
Coal is the BIGGEST corporate welfare recipient in the country.
The taxpayers of Kentucky LOSE money subsidizing coal.
Report Coal industry costs state government GreenSpot Kentucky.com
In its latest study, MACED determined that coal delivered $527 million to the state in 2006, mostly through coal severance, corporate income, sales and vehicle taxes, plus taxes on 17,903 people employed in mining and 52,429 people in jobs that depend on mining.
The same year, MACED said, the coal industry cost the state $642 million.
This includes $239 million for frequent repairs to about 3,800 miles in the coal-haul road system, where trucks weighing up to 120,000 pounds crush the pavement as they carry coal from mines to tipples, trains, barges and power plants. Companies purchase state decals for the right to run coal trucks overweight, but that revenue offsets very little of the cost of road repairs.
Unknown to most taxpayers, MACED said, the state also gives the coal industry a variety of tax breaks, subsidizes the regulatory agencies that deal with its impact and even pays for pro-coal materials through a "coal education program" aimed at schoolchildren.
The severance taxes and mine permit fees the industry pays Frankfort to cover its costs have not increased in about 30 years. Of top coal-producing states, Kentucky gets the least from severance taxes — 2.9 percent of its tax income, compared with 7.1 percent for neighboring West Virginia.
Generations of Kentucky politicians have felt obliged to keep the coal industry happy, and that is reflected in the state's fiscal policy, said Ron Eller, an Appalachian historian at the University of Kentucky.
"The coal industry's resources are often used to support candidates, especially in Eastern Kentucky, who are favorable to its interests," Eller said. "To refuse to take coal money, or to speak out against coal's interests, often results in the defeat of a candidate."
The coal industry spent more than $1 million on state political donations in recent years and $255,145 to lobby the last two legislative sessions. Several top Kentucky lawmakers either own coal mines, hold white-collar posts at coal companies or do private business with coal.
How many times do these claims have to be debunked? I know, I'll be debunking them until the day an ice sheet is about to flatten New York.
The source of your information is an organization called MACED. I looked up their website, and they listed the following as some of their activities:
MACED Overview
Strengthening Key Sectors — Energy
• Energy Efficient Enterprises — Helping enterprises become more energy efficient and avoid the impact of rising energy costs while reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
• How$martKY — Working with electric cooperatives to fund energy efficiency retrofits for homes and businesses.
• Kentucky Sustainable Energy Alliance — Advancing state policy that supports investment in energy efficiency and renewable energy.
Influencing Kentucky’s economic policy and advancing an Appalachian transition
Too often, state and federal policies inadequately support needed services and sustainable development, subsidize harmful development or ignore the unique concerns and needs of Central Appalachia. To achieve change at scale, public policy must shift.
• Appalachian Transition Initiative — Advance the regional conversation about the need, potential and path toward a more just, sustainable and prosperous future.
• Kentucky Center for Economic Policy — Conducting research, analysis and education on state fiscal and economic policy issues.
• Research and Policy — Providing information and analysis to help citizens and decision makers understand the challenges, issues and opportunities facing Kentucky and Central Appalachia.
In short, this organization sounds like your typical leftist propaganda and lobbying operation. It has no credibility.
I could go down the list it's claims and point out the flaws in each one, but I seldom bother. These leftwing operations all lie. You can't believe anything they say.
"Truth will do well enough if left to shift for herself. She seldom has received much aid from the power of great men to whom she is rarely known & seldom welcome. She has no need of force to procure entrance into the minds of men. Error indeed has often prevailed by the assistance of power or force. Truth is the proper & sufficient antagonist to error.
Thomas Jefferson
'A complete picture'
Maxson said MACED favored the coal industry in several ways while conducting its study.
It did not account for costs related to air and water polluted by mining and coal-fired power plants, or workers sickened or crippled by coal jobs. It credited the industry for the full $224 million in coal severance taxes paid that year (after $18 million in special deductions), although half that money went to coal-producing counties and did not stay in the state's general fund.
Also, because MACED looked at 2006 data, it did not count the hundreds of millions of dollars in coal incentives approved during a special session of the legislature in 2007 at the request of Peabody Energy Corp. Like half of its fellow members in the Kentucky Coal Association, Peabody — which last year reported record cash flows — mines Kentucky coal but is headquartered in another state.
"Our purpose here isn't to beat up on coal," Maxson said. "It's education. We want to lay out a complete picture so our elected leaders can make informed decisions about how we proceed with our energy policy, our economic development policy and our fiscal policy."
Coal counties poorest
For all the wealth that coal produced over the last century, Eastern Kentucky's coal counties remain among the nation's poorest, Maxson said. Destructive mining practices, such as mountaintop removal, sacrifice the region's natural beauty, and with it other possible employers, such as tourism, he said.
Leftists support ridiculously expensive unreliable energy that can never be the sole supply for a power grid. Leftists support driving up the price of electricity until poor people can no longer afford it. They want us all to freeze in the dark.Have you got any facts or logic to post, or is this type of idiocy all you've got?
No one seemed to have a problem when the government spent billions developing nuclear energy. No one seemed to have any problems expanding the electrical grid all across the country by providing development money to build coal fired plants all across the country. And yet here we are in the 21st century seeing pundants opposed to clean energy, as if they can't give up their addiction to petro-fumes. Which leads me to think these deniers might all by toluene sniffers. That makes more sense than any other explanation I've seen.
In the days when nuclear power was developed, almost everyone was a socialist. Nowadays, a lot of people have wized up. Furthermore, the government doesn't provide "development money" to build coal fired power plants. They are entirely privately financed. So your post is basically a load of horseshit. All you can do is make nasty aspersions about people who know a con when they encounter one.
Coal is the BIGGEST corporate welfare recipient in the country.
The taxpayers of Kentucky LOSE money subsidizing coal.
Report Coal industry costs state government GreenSpot Kentucky.com
In its latest study, MACED determined that coal delivered $527 million to the state in 2006, mostly through coal severance, corporate income, sales and vehicle taxes, plus taxes on 17,903 people employed in mining and 52,429 people in jobs that depend on mining.
The same year, MACED said, the coal industry cost the state $642 million.
This includes $239 million for frequent repairs to about 3,800 miles in the coal-haul road system, where trucks weighing up to 120,000 pounds crush the pavement as they carry coal from mines to tipples, trains, barges and power plants. Companies purchase state decals for the right to run coal trucks overweight, but that revenue offsets very little of the cost of road repairs.
Unknown to most taxpayers, MACED said, the state also gives the coal industry a variety of tax breaks, subsidizes the regulatory agencies that deal with its impact and even pays for pro-coal materials through a "coal education program" aimed at schoolchildren.
The severance taxes and mine permit fees the industry pays Frankfort to cover its costs have not increased in about 30 years. Of top coal-producing states, Kentucky gets the least from severance taxes — 2.9 percent of its tax income, compared with 7.1 percent for neighboring West Virginia.
Generations of Kentucky politicians have felt obliged to keep the coal industry happy, and that is reflected in the state's fiscal policy, said Ron Eller, an Appalachian historian at the University of Kentucky.
"The coal industry's resources are often used to support candidates, especially in Eastern Kentucky, who are favorable to its interests," Eller said. "To refuse to take coal money, or to speak out against coal's interests, often results in the defeat of a candidate."
The coal industry spent more than $1 million on state political donations in recent years and $255,145 to lobby the last two legislative sessions. Several top Kentucky lawmakers either own coal mines, hold white-collar posts at coal companies or do private business with coal.
How many times do these claims have to be debunked? I know, I'll be debunking them until the day an ice sheet is about to flatten New York.
The source of your information is an organization called MACED. I looked up their website, and they listed the following as some of their activities:
MACED Overview
Strengthening Key Sectors — Energy
• Energy Efficient Enterprises — Helping enterprises become more energy efficient and avoid the impact of rising energy costs while reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
• How$martKY — Working with electric cooperatives to fund energy efficiency retrofits for homes and businesses.
• Kentucky Sustainable Energy Alliance — Advancing state policy that supports investment in energy efficiency and renewable energy.
Influencing Kentucky’s economic policy and advancing an Appalachian transition
Too often, state and federal policies inadequately support needed services and sustainable development, subsidize harmful development or ignore the unique concerns and needs of Central Appalachia. To achieve change at scale, public policy must shift.
• Appalachian Transition Initiative — Advance the regional conversation about the need, potential and path toward a more just, sustainable and prosperous future.
• Kentucky Center for Economic Policy — Conducting research, analysis and education on state fiscal and economic policy issues.
• Research and Policy — Providing information and analysis to help citizens and decision makers understand the challenges, issues and opportunities facing Kentucky and Central Appalachia.
In short, this organization sounds like your typical leftist propaganda and lobbying operation. It has no credibility.
I could go down the list it's claims and point out the flaws in each one, but I seldom bother. These leftwing operations all lie. You can't believe anything they say.
So what are saying is that "leftists" support clean energy, energy efficiency, energy independence while "rightwingnuts" support dirty energy, polluting the planet, and dependence on foreign oil. Well, bubba, we knew that already but it is good to see you admit it.
Leftists support ridiculously expensive unreliable energy that can never be the sole supply for a power grid. Leftists support driving up the price of electricity until poor people can no longer afford it. They want us all to freeze in the dark.No one seemed to have a problem when the government spent billions developing nuclear energy. No one seemed to have any problems expanding the electrical grid all across the country by providing development money to build coal fired plants all across the country. And yet here we are in the 21st century seeing pundants opposed to clean energy, as if they can't give up their addiction to petro-fumes. Which leads me to think these deniers might all by toluene sniffers. That makes more sense than any other explanation I've seen.
In the days when nuclear power was developed, almost everyone was a socialist. Nowadays, a lot of people have wized up. Furthermore, the government doesn't provide "development money" to build coal fired power plants. They are entirely privately financed. So your post is basically a load of horseshit. All you can do is make nasty aspersions about people who know a con when they encounter one.
Coal is the BIGGEST corporate welfare recipient in the country.
The taxpayers of Kentucky LOSE money subsidizing coal.
Report Coal industry costs state government GreenSpot Kentucky.com
In its latest study, MACED determined that coal delivered $527 million to the state in 2006, mostly through coal severance, corporate income, sales and vehicle taxes, plus taxes on 17,903 people employed in mining and 52,429 people in jobs that depend on mining.
The same year, MACED said, the coal industry cost the state $642 million.
This includes $239 million for frequent repairs to about 3,800 miles in the coal-haul road system, where trucks weighing up to 120,000 pounds crush the pavement as they carry coal from mines to tipples, trains, barges and power plants. Companies purchase state decals for the right to run coal trucks overweight, but that revenue offsets very little of the cost of road repairs.
Unknown to most taxpayers, MACED said, the state also gives the coal industry a variety of tax breaks, subsidizes the regulatory agencies that deal with its impact and even pays for pro-coal materials through a "coal education program" aimed at schoolchildren.
The severance taxes and mine permit fees the industry pays Frankfort to cover its costs have not increased in about 30 years. Of top coal-producing states, Kentucky gets the least from severance taxes — 2.9 percent of its tax income, compared with 7.1 percent for neighboring West Virginia.
Generations of Kentucky politicians have felt obliged to keep the coal industry happy, and that is reflected in the state's fiscal policy, said Ron Eller, an Appalachian historian at the University of Kentucky.
"The coal industry's resources are often used to support candidates, especially in Eastern Kentucky, who are favorable to its interests," Eller said. "To refuse to take coal money, or to speak out against coal's interests, often results in the defeat of a candidate."
The coal industry spent more than $1 million on state political donations in recent years and $255,145 to lobby the last two legislative sessions. Several top Kentucky lawmakers either own coal mines, hold white-collar posts at coal companies or do private business with coal.
How many times do these claims have to be debunked? I know, I'll be debunking them until the day an ice sheet is about to flatten New York.
The source of your information is an organization called MACED. I looked up their website, and they listed the following as some of their activities:
MACED Overview
Strengthening Key Sectors — Energy
• Energy Efficient Enterprises — Helping enterprises become more energy efficient and avoid the impact of rising energy costs while reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
• How$martKY — Working with electric cooperatives to fund energy efficiency retrofits for homes and businesses.
• Kentucky Sustainable Energy Alliance — Advancing state policy that supports investment in energy efficiency and renewable energy.
Influencing Kentucky’s economic policy and advancing an Appalachian transition
Too often, state and federal policies inadequately support needed services and sustainable development, subsidize harmful development or ignore the unique concerns and needs of Central Appalachia. To achieve change at scale, public policy must shift.
• Appalachian Transition Initiative — Advance the regional conversation about the need, potential and path toward a more just, sustainable and prosperous future.
• Kentucky Center for Economic Policy — Conducting research, analysis and education on state fiscal and economic policy issues.
• Research and Policy — Providing information and analysis to help citizens and decision makers understand the challenges, issues and opportunities facing Kentucky and Central Appalachia.
In short, this organization sounds like your typical leftist propaganda and lobbying operation. It has no credibility.
I could go down the list it's claims and point out the flaws in each one, but I seldom bother. These leftwing operations all lie. You can't believe anything they say.
So what are saying is that "leftists" support clean energy, energy efficiency, energy independence while "rightwingnuts" support dirty energy, polluting the planet, and dependence on foreign oil. Well, bubba, we knew that already but it is good to see you admit it.
Leftists support ridiculously expensive unreliable energy that can never be the sole supply for a power grid. Leftists support driving up the price of electricity until poor people can no longer afford it. They want us all to freeze in the dark.In the days when nuclear power was developed, almost everyone was a socialist. Nowadays, a lot of people have wized up. Furthermore, the government doesn't provide "development money" to build coal fired power plants. They are entirely privately financed. So your post is basically a load of horseshit. All you can do is make nasty aspersions about people who know a con when they encounter one.
Coal is the BIGGEST corporate welfare recipient in the country.
The taxpayers of Kentucky LOSE money subsidizing coal.
Report Coal industry costs state government GreenSpot Kentucky.com
In its latest study, MACED determined that coal delivered $527 million to the state in 2006, mostly through coal severance, corporate income, sales and vehicle taxes, plus taxes on 17,903 people employed in mining and 52,429 people in jobs that depend on mining.
The same year, MACED said, the coal industry cost the state $642 million.
This includes $239 million for frequent repairs to about 3,800 miles in the coal-haul road system, where trucks weighing up to 120,000 pounds crush the pavement as they carry coal from mines to tipples, trains, barges and power plants. Companies purchase state decals for the right to run coal trucks overweight, but that revenue offsets very little of the cost of road repairs.
Unknown to most taxpayers, MACED said, the state also gives the coal industry a variety of tax breaks, subsidizes the regulatory agencies that deal with its impact and even pays for pro-coal materials through a "coal education program" aimed at schoolchildren.
The severance taxes and mine permit fees the industry pays Frankfort to cover its costs have not increased in about 30 years. Of top coal-producing states, Kentucky gets the least from severance taxes — 2.9 percent of its tax income, compared with 7.1 percent for neighboring West Virginia.
Generations of Kentucky politicians have felt obliged to keep the coal industry happy, and that is reflected in the state's fiscal policy, said Ron Eller, an Appalachian historian at the University of Kentucky.
"The coal industry's resources are often used to support candidates, especially in Eastern Kentucky, who are favorable to its interests," Eller said. "To refuse to take coal money, or to speak out against coal's interests, often results in the defeat of a candidate."
The coal industry spent more than $1 million on state political donations in recent years and $255,145 to lobby the last two legislative sessions. Several top Kentucky lawmakers either own coal mines, hold white-collar posts at coal companies or do private business with coal.
How many times do these claims have to be debunked? I know, I'll be debunking them until the day an ice sheet is about to flatten New York.
The source of your information is an organization called MACED. I looked up their website, and they listed the following as some of their activities:
MACED Overview
Strengthening Key Sectors — Energy
• Energy Efficient Enterprises — Helping enterprises become more energy efficient and avoid the impact of rising energy costs while reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
• How$martKY — Working with electric cooperatives to fund energy efficiency retrofits for homes and businesses.
• Kentucky Sustainable Energy Alliance — Advancing state policy that supports investment in energy efficiency and renewable energy.
Influencing Kentucky’s economic policy and advancing an Appalachian transition
Too often, state and federal policies inadequately support needed services and sustainable development, subsidize harmful development or ignore the unique concerns and needs of Central Appalachia. To achieve change at scale, public policy must shift.
• Appalachian Transition Initiative — Advance the regional conversation about the need, potential and path toward a more just, sustainable and prosperous future.
• Kentucky Center for Economic Policy — Conducting research, analysis and education on state fiscal and economic policy issues.
• Research and Policy — Providing information and analysis to help citizens and decision makers understand the challenges, issues and opportunities facing Kentucky and Central Appalachia.
In short, this organization sounds like your typical leftist propaganda and lobbying operation. It has no credibility.
I could go down the list it's claims and point out the flaws in each one, but I seldom bother. These leftwing operations all lie. You can't believe anything they say.
So what are saying is that "leftists" support clean energy, energy efficiency, energy independence while "rightwingnuts" support dirty energy, polluting the planet, and dependence on foreign oil. Well, bubba, we knew that already but it is good to see you admit it.
Fossil fuels are not, and never have been the sole supply for the power grid. So why would you expect alterative energy to be any different. The rest of your rant is a straw man, but then, you knew that already.
MACED is a leftwing propaganda organ. Nothing it says is credible.No one seemed to have a problem when the government spent billions developing nuclear energy. No one seemed to have any problems expanding the electrical grid all across the country by providing development money to build coal fired plants all across the country. And yet here we are in the 21st century seeing pundants opposed to clean energy, as if they can't give up their addiction to petro-fumes. Which leads me to think these deniers might all by toluene sniffers. That makes more sense than any other explanation I've seen.
In the days when nuclear power was developed, almost everyone was a socialist. Nowadays, a lot of people have wized up. Furthermore, the government doesn't provide "development money" to build coal fired power plants. They are entirely privately financed. So your post is basically a load of horseshit. All you can do is make nasty aspersions about people who know a con when they encounter one.
Coal is the BIGGEST corporate welfare recipient in the country.
The taxpayers of Kentucky LOSE money subsidizing coal.
Report Coal industry costs state government GreenSpot Kentucky.com
In its latest study, MACED determined that coal delivered $527 million to the state in 2006, mostly through coal severance, corporate income, sales and vehicle taxes, plus taxes on 17,903 people employed in mining and 52,429 people in jobs that depend on mining.
The same year, MACED said, the coal industry cost the state $642 million.
This includes $239 million for frequent repairs to about 3,800 miles in the coal-haul road system, where trucks weighing up to 120,000 pounds crush the pavement as they carry coal from mines to tipples, trains, barges and power plants. Companies purchase state decals for the right to run coal trucks overweight, but that revenue offsets very little of the cost of road repairs.
Unknown to most taxpayers, MACED said, the state also gives the coal industry a variety of tax breaks, subsidizes the regulatory agencies that deal with its impact and even pays for pro-coal materials through a "coal education program" aimed at schoolchildren.
The severance taxes and mine permit fees the industry pays Frankfort to cover its costs have not increased in about 30 years. Of top coal-producing states, Kentucky gets the least from severance taxes — 2.9 percent of its tax income, compared with 7.1 percent for neighboring West Virginia.
Generations of Kentucky politicians have felt obliged to keep the coal industry happy, and that is reflected in the state's fiscal policy, said Ron Eller, an Appalachian historian at the University of Kentucky.
"The coal industry's resources are often used to support candidates, especially in Eastern Kentucky, who are favorable to its interests," Eller said. "To refuse to take coal money, or to speak out against coal's interests, often results in the defeat of a candidate."
The coal industry spent more than $1 million on state political donations in recent years and $255,145 to lobby the last two legislative sessions. Several top Kentucky lawmakers either own coal mines, hold white-collar posts at coal companies or do private business with coal.
How many times do these claims have to be debunked? I know, I'll be debunking them until the day an ice sheet is about to flatten New York.
The source of your information is an organization called MACED. I looked up their website, and they listed the following as some of their activities:
MACED Overview
Strengthening Key Sectors — Energy
• Energy Efficient Enterprises — Helping enterprises become more energy efficient and avoid the impact of rising energy costs while reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
• How$martKY — Working with electric cooperatives to fund energy efficiency retrofits for homes and businesses.
• Kentucky Sustainable Energy Alliance — Advancing state policy that supports investment in energy efficiency and renewable energy.
Influencing Kentucky’s economic policy and advancing an Appalachian transition
Too often, state and federal policies inadequately support needed services and sustainable development, subsidize harmful development or ignore the unique concerns and needs of Central Appalachia. To achieve change at scale, public policy must shift.
• Appalachian Transition Initiative — Advance the regional conversation about the need, potential and path toward a more just, sustainable and prosperous future.
• Kentucky Center for Economic Policy — Conducting research, analysis and education on state fiscal and economic policy issues.
• Research and Policy — Providing information and analysis to help citizens and decision makers understand the challenges, issues and opportunities facing Kentucky and Central Appalachia.
In short, this organization sounds like your typical leftist propaganda and lobbying operation. It has no credibility.
I could go down the list it's claims and point out the flaws in each one, but I seldom bother. These leftwing operations all lie. You can't believe anything they say.
"Truth will do well enough if left to shift for herself. She seldom has received much aid from the power of great men to whom she is rarely known & seldom welcome. She has no need of force to procure entrance into the minds of men. Error indeed has often prevailed by the assistance of power or force. Truth is the proper & sufficient antagonist to error.
Thomas Jefferson
'A complete picture'
Maxson said MACED favored the coal industry in several ways while conducting its study.
It did not account for costs related to air and water polluted by mining and coal-fired power plants, or workers sickened or crippled by coal jobs. It credited the industry for the full $224 million in coal severance taxes paid that year (after $18 million in special deductions), although half that money went to coal-producing counties and did not stay in the state's general fund.
Also, because MACED looked at 2006 data, it did not count the hundreds of millions of dollars in coal incentives approved during a special session of the legislature in 2007 at the request of Peabody Energy Corp. Like half of its fellow members in the Kentucky Coal Association, Peabody — which last year reported record cash flows — mines Kentucky coal but is headquartered in another state.
"Our purpose here isn't to beat up on coal," Maxson said. "It's education. We want to lay out a complete picture so our elected leaders can make informed decisions about how we proceed with our energy policy, our economic development policy and our fiscal policy."
Coal counties poorest
For all the wealth that coal produced over the last century, Eastern Kentucky's coal counties remain among the nation's poorest, Maxson said. Destructive mining practices, such as mountaintop removal, sacrifice the region's natural beauty, and with it other possible employers, such as tourism, he said.
End of story.
Leftists support ridiculously expensive unreliable energy that can never be the sole supply for a power grid. Leftists support driving up the price of electricity until poor people can no longer afford it. They want us all to freeze in the dark.In the days when nuclear power was developed, almost everyone was a socialist. Nowadays, a lot of people have wized up. Furthermore, the government doesn't provide "development money" to build coal fired power plants. They are entirely privately financed. So your post is basically a load of horseshit. All you can do is make nasty aspersions about people who know a con when they encounter one.
Coal is the BIGGEST corporate welfare recipient in the country.
The taxpayers of Kentucky LOSE money subsidizing coal.
Report Coal industry costs state government GreenSpot Kentucky.com
In its latest study, MACED determined that coal delivered $527 million to the state in 2006, mostly through coal severance, corporate income, sales and vehicle taxes, plus taxes on 17,903 people employed in mining and 52,429 people in jobs that depend on mining.
The same year, MACED said, the coal industry cost the state $642 million.
This includes $239 million for frequent repairs to about 3,800 miles in the coal-haul road system, where trucks weighing up to 120,000 pounds crush the pavement as they carry coal from mines to tipples, trains, barges and power plants. Companies purchase state decals for the right to run coal trucks overweight, but that revenue offsets very little of the cost of road repairs.
Unknown to most taxpayers, MACED said, the state also gives the coal industry a variety of tax breaks, subsidizes the regulatory agencies that deal with its impact and even pays for pro-coal materials through a "coal education program" aimed at schoolchildren.
The severance taxes and mine permit fees the industry pays Frankfort to cover its costs have not increased in about 30 years. Of top coal-producing states, Kentucky gets the least from severance taxes — 2.9 percent of its tax income, compared with 7.1 percent for neighboring West Virginia.
Generations of Kentucky politicians have felt obliged to keep the coal industry happy, and that is reflected in the state's fiscal policy, said Ron Eller, an Appalachian historian at the University of Kentucky.
"The coal industry's resources are often used to support candidates, especially in Eastern Kentucky, who are favorable to its interests," Eller said. "To refuse to take coal money, or to speak out against coal's interests, often results in the defeat of a candidate."
The coal industry spent more than $1 million on state political donations in recent years and $255,145 to lobby the last two legislative sessions. Several top Kentucky lawmakers either own coal mines, hold white-collar posts at coal companies or do private business with coal.
How many times do these claims have to be debunked? I know, I'll be debunking them until the day an ice sheet is about to flatten New York.
The source of your information is an organization called MACED. I looked up their website, and they listed the following as some of their activities:
MACED Overview
Strengthening Key Sectors — Energy
• Energy Efficient Enterprises — Helping enterprises become more energy efficient and avoid the impact of rising energy costs while reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
• How$martKY — Working with electric cooperatives to fund energy efficiency retrofits for homes and businesses.
• Kentucky Sustainable Energy Alliance — Advancing state policy that supports investment in energy efficiency and renewable energy.
Influencing Kentucky’s economic policy and advancing an Appalachian transition
Too often, state and federal policies inadequately support needed services and sustainable development, subsidize harmful development or ignore the unique concerns and needs of Central Appalachia. To achieve change at scale, public policy must shift.
• Appalachian Transition Initiative — Advance the regional conversation about the need, potential and path toward a more just, sustainable and prosperous future.
• Kentucky Center for Economic Policy — Conducting research, analysis and education on state fiscal and economic policy issues.
• Research and Policy — Providing information and analysis to help citizens and decision makers understand the challenges, issues and opportunities facing Kentucky and Central Appalachia.
In short, this organization sounds like your typical leftist propaganda and lobbying operation. It has no credibility.
I could go down the list it's claims and point out the flaws in each one, but I seldom bother. These leftwing operations all lie. You can't believe anything they say.
So what are saying is that "leftists" support clean energy, energy efficiency, energy independence while "rightwingnuts" support dirty energy, polluting the planet, and dependence on foreign oil. Well, bubba, we knew that already but it is good to see you admit it.
Fossil fuels are not, and never have been the sole supply for the power grid. So why would you expect alterative energy to be any different. The rest of your rant is a straw man, but then, you knew that already.
MACED is a leftwing propaganda organ. Nothing it says is credible.In the days when nuclear power was developed, almost everyone was a socialist. Nowadays, a lot of people have wized up. Furthermore, the government doesn't provide "development money" to build coal fired power plants. They are entirely privately financed. So your post is basically a load of horseshit. All you can do is make nasty aspersions about people who know a con when they encounter one.
Coal is the BIGGEST corporate welfare recipient in the country.
The taxpayers of Kentucky LOSE money subsidizing coal.
Report Coal industry costs state government GreenSpot Kentucky.com
In its latest study, MACED determined that coal delivered $527 million to the state in 2006, mostly through coal severance, corporate income, sales and vehicle taxes, plus taxes on 17,903 people employed in mining and 52,429 people in jobs that depend on mining.
The same year, MACED said, the coal industry cost the state $642 million.
This includes $239 million for frequent repairs to about 3,800 miles in the coal-haul road system, where trucks weighing up to 120,000 pounds crush the pavement as they carry coal from mines to tipples, trains, barges and power plants. Companies purchase state decals for the right to run coal trucks overweight, but that revenue offsets very little of the cost of road repairs.
Unknown to most taxpayers, MACED said, the state also gives the coal industry a variety of tax breaks, subsidizes the regulatory agencies that deal with its impact and even pays for pro-coal materials through a "coal education program" aimed at schoolchildren.
The severance taxes and mine permit fees the industry pays Frankfort to cover its costs have not increased in about 30 years. Of top coal-producing states, Kentucky gets the least from severance taxes — 2.9 percent of its tax income, compared with 7.1 percent for neighboring West Virginia.
Generations of Kentucky politicians have felt obliged to keep the coal industry happy, and that is reflected in the state's fiscal policy, said Ron Eller, an Appalachian historian at the University of Kentucky.
"The coal industry's resources are often used to support candidates, especially in Eastern Kentucky, who are favorable to its interests," Eller said. "To refuse to take coal money, or to speak out against coal's interests, often results in the defeat of a candidate."
The coal industry spent more than $1 million on state political donations in recent years and $255,145 to lobby the last two legislative sessions. Several top Kentucky lawmakers either own coal mines, hold white-collar posts at coal companies or do private business with coal.
How many times do these claims have to be debunked? I know, I'll be debunking them until the day an ice sheet is about to flatten New York.
The source of your information is an organization called MACED. I looked up their website, and they listed the following as some of their activities:
MACED Overview
Strengthening Key Sectors — Energy
• Energy Efficient Enterprises — Helping enterprises become more energy efficient and avoid the impact of rising energy costs while reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
• How$martKY — Working with electric cooperatives to fund energy efficiency retrofits for homes and businesses.
• Kentucky Sustainable Energy Alliance — Advancing state policy that supports investment in energy efficiency and renewable energy.
Influencing Kentucky’s economic policy and advancing an Appalachian transition
Too often, state and federal policies inadequately support needed services and sustainable development, subsidize harmful development or ignore the unique concerns and needs of Central Appalachia. To achieve change at scale, public policy must shift.
• Appalachian Transition Initiative — Advance the regional conversation about the need, potential and path toward a more just, sustainable and prosperous future.
• Kentucky Center for Economic Policy — Conducting research, analysis and education on state fiscal and economic policy issues.
• Research and Policy — Providing information and analysis to help citizens and decision makers understand the challenges, issues and opportunities facing Kentucky and Central Appalachia.
In short, this organization sounds like your typical leftist propaganda and lobbying operation. It has no credibility.
I could go down the list it's claims and point out the flaws in each one, but I seldom bother. These leftwing operations all lie. You can't believe anything they say.
"Truth will do well enough if left to shift for herself. She seldom has received much aid from the power of great men to whom she is rarely known & seldom welcome. She has no need of force to procure entrance into the minds of men. Error indeed has often prevailed by the assistance of power or force. Truth is the proper & sufficient antagonist to error.
Thomas Jefferson
'A complete picture'
Maxson said MACED favored the coal industry in several ways while conducting its study.
It did not account for costs related to air and water polluted by mining and coal-fired power plants, or workers sickened or crippled by coal jobs. It credited the industry for the full $224 million in coal severance taxes paid that year (after $18 million in special deductions), although half that money went to coal-producing counties and did not stay in the state's general fund.
Also, because MACED looked at 2006 data, it did not count the hundreds of millions of dollars in coal incentives approved during a special session of the legislature in 2007 at the request of Peabody Energy Corp. Like half of its fellow members in the Kentucky Coal Association, Peabody — which last year reported record cash flows — mines Kentucky coal but is headquartered in another state.
"Our purpose here isn't to beat up on coal," Maxson said. "It's education. We want to lay out a complete picture so our elected leaders can make informed decisions about how we proceed with our energy policy, our economic development policy and our fiscal policy."
Coal counties poorest
For all the wealth that coal produced over the last century, Eastern Kentucky's coal counties remain among the nation's poorest, Maxson said. Destructive mining practices, such as mountaintop removal, sacrifice the region's natural beauty, and with it other possible employers, such as tourism, he said.
End of story.
Hey pea brain, do you believe the coal industry is going to tell you how expensive their product really is? They are not going to tell you about the extreme cost of building haul roads that have to be 10 times deeper based than normal roads. They are not going to take any responsibility for the illnesses, doctor bills and lost work time their pollution causes. They stick it in the taxpayer's ass and you LOVE being butt fucked.
Leftists support ridiculously expensive unreliable energy that can never be the sole supply for a power grid. Leftists support driving up the price of electricity until poor people can no longer afford it. They want us all to freeze in the dark.Coal is the BIGGEST corporate welfare recipient in the country.
The taxpayers of Kentucky LOSE money subsidizing coal.
Report Coal industry costs state government GreenSpot Kentucky.com
In its latest study, MACED determined that coal delivered $527 million to the state in 2006, mostly through coal severance, corporate income, sales and vehicle taxes, plus taxes on 17,903 people employed in mining and 52,429 people in jobs that depend on mining.
The same year, MACED said, the coal industry cost the state $642 million.
This includes $239 million for frequent repairs to about 3,800 miles in the coal-haul road system, where trucks weighing up to 120,000 pounds crush the pavement as they carry coal from mines to tipples, trains, barges and power plants. Companies purchase state decals for the right to run coal trucks overweight, but that revenue offsets very little of the cost of road repairs.
Unknown to most taxpayers, MACED said, the state also gives the coal industry a variety of tax breaks, subsidizes the regulatory agencies that deal with its impact and even pays for pro-coal materials through a "coal education program" aimed at schoolchildren.
The severance taxes and mine permit fees the industry pays Frankfort to cover its costs have not increased in about 30 years. Of top coal-producing states, Kentucky gets the least from severance taxes — 2.9 percent of its tax income, compared with 7.1 percent for neighboring West Virginia.
Generations of Kentucky politicians have felt obliged to keep the coal industry happy, and that is reflected in the state's fiscal policy, said Ron Eller, an Appalachian historian at the University of Kentucky.
"The coal industry's resources are often used to support candidates, especially in Eastern Kentucky, who are favorable to its interests," Eller said. "To refuse to take coal money, or to speak out against coal's interests, often results in the defeat of a candidate."
The coal industry spent more than $1 million on state political donations in recent years and $255,145 to lobby the last two legislative sessions. Several top Kentucky lawmakers either own coal mines, hold white-collar posts at coal companies or do private business with coal.
How many times do these claims have to be debunked? I know, I'll be debunking them until the day an ice sheet is about to flatten New York.
The source of your information is an organization called MACED. I looked up their website, and they listed the following as some of their activities:
MACED Overview
Strengthening Key Sectors — Energy
• Energy Efficient Enterprises — Helping enterprises become more energy efficient and avoid the impact of rising energy costs while reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
• How$martKY — Working with electric cooperatives to fund energy efficiency retrofits for homes and businesses.
• Kentucky Sustainable Energy Alliance — Advancing state policy that supports investment in energy efficiency and renewable energy.
Influencing Kentucky’s economic policy and advancing an Appalachian transition
Too often, state and federal policies inadequately support needed services and sustainable development, subsidize harmful development or ignore the unique concerns and needs of Central Appalachia. To achieve change at scale, public policy must shift.
• Appalachian Transition Initiative — Advance the regional conversation about the need, potential and path toward a more just, sustainable and prosperous future.
• Kentucky Center for Economic Policy — Conducting research, analysis and education on state fiscal and economic policy issues.
• Research and Policy — Providing information and analysis to help citizens and decision makers understand the challenges, issues and opportunities facing Kentucky and Central Appalachia.
In short, this organization sounds like your typical leftist propaganda and lobbying operation. It has no credibility.
I could go down the list it's claims and point out the flaws in each one, but I seldom bother. These leftwing operations all lie. You can't believe anything they say.
So what are saying is that "leftists" support clean energy, energy efficiency, energy independence while "rightwingnuts" support dirty energy, polluting the planet, and dependence on foreign oil. Well, bubba, we knew that already but it is good to see you admit it.
Fossil fuels are not, and never have been the sole supply for the power grid. So why would you expect alterative energy to be any different. The rest of your rant is a straw man, but then, you knew that already.
That refers to the U.S. For the global economy, fossil fuels make up a significant component of manufacturing, food production, and shipping.
Leftists support ridiculously expensive unreliable energy that can never be the sole supply for a power grid. Leftists support driving up the price of electricity until poor people can no longer afford it. They want us all to freeze in the dark.Coal is the BIGGEST corporate welfare recipient in the country.
The taxpayers of Kentucky LOSE money subsidizing coal.
Report Coal industry costs state government GreenSpot Kentucky.com
In its latest study, MACED determined that coal delivered $527 million to the state in 2006, mostly through coal severance, corporate income, sales and vehicle taxes, plus taxes on 17,903 people employed in mining and 52,429 people in jobs that depend on mining.
The same year, MACED said, the coal industry cost the state $642 million.
This includes $239 million for frequent repairs to about 3,800 miles in the coal-haul road system, where trucks weighing up to 120,000 pounds crush the pavement as they carry coal from mines to tipples, trains, barges and power plants. Companies purchase state decals for the right to run coal trucks overweight, but that revenue offsets very little of the cost of road repairs.
Unknown to most taxpayers, MACED said, the state also gives the coal industry a variety of tax breaks, subsidizes the regulatory agencies that deal with its impact and even pays for pro-coal materials through a "coal education program" aimed at schoolchildren.
The severance taxes and mine permit fees the industry pays Frankfort to cover its costs have not increased in about 30 years. Of top coal-producing states, Kentucky gets the least from severance taxes — 2.9 percent of its tax income, compared with 7.1 percent for neighboring West Virginia.
Generations of Kentucky politicians have felt obliged to keep the coal industry happy, and that is reflected in the state's fiscal policy, said Ron Eller, an Appalachian historian at the University of Kentucky.
"The coal industry's resources are often used to support candidates, especially in Eastern Kentucky, who are favorable to its interests," Eller said. "To refuse to take coal money, or to speak out against coal's interests, often results in the defeat of a candidate."
The coal industry spent more than $1 million on state political donations in recent years and $255,145 to lobby the last two legislative sessions. Several top Kentucky lawmakers either own coal mines, hold white-collar posts at coal companies or do private business with coal.
How many times do these claims have to be debunked? I know, I'll be debunking them until the day an ice sheet is about to flatten New York.
The source of your information is an organization called MACED. I looked up their website, and they listed the following as some of their activities:
MACED Overview
Strengthening Key Sectors — Energy
• Energy Efficient Enterprises — Helping enterprises become more energy efficient and avoid the impact of rising energy costs while reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
• How$martKY — Working with electric cooperatives to fund energy efficiency retrofits for homes and businesses.
• Kentucky Sustainable Energy Alliance — Advancing state policy that supports investment in energy efficiency and renewable energy.
Influencing Kentucky’s economic policy and advancing an Appalachian transition
Too often, state and federal policies inadequately support needed services and sustainable development, subsidize harmful development or ignore the unique concerns and needs of Central Appalachia. To achieve change at scale, public policy must shift.
• Appalachian Transition Initiative — Advance the regional conversation about the need, potential and path toward a more just, sustainable and prosperous future.
• Kentucky Center for Economic Policy — Conducting research, analysis and education on state fiscal and economic policy issues.
• Research and Policy — Providing information and analysis to help citizens and decision makers understand the challenges, issues and opportunities facing Kentucky and Central Appalachia.
In short, this organization sounds like your typical leftist propaganda and lobbying operation. It has no credibility.
I could go down the list it's claims and point out the flaws in each one, but I seldom bother. These leftwing operations all lie. You can't believe anything they say.
So what are saying is that "leftists" support clean energy, energy efficiency, energy independence while "rightwingnuts" support dirty energy, polluting the planet, and dependence on foreign oil. Well, bubba, we knew that already but it is good to see you admit it.
Fossil fuels are not, and never have been the sole supply for the power grid. So why would you expect alterative energy to be any different. The rest of your rant is a straw man, but then, you knew that already.
Because that's what all you morons keep insisting on.
Leftists support ridiculously expensive unreliable energy that can never be the sole supply for a power grid. Leftists support driving up the price of electricity until poor people can no longer afford it. They want us all to freeze in the dark.How many times do these claims have to be debunked? I know, I'll be debunking them until the day an ice sheet is about to flatten New York.
The source of your information is an organization called MACED. I looked up their website, and they listed the following as some of their activities:
MACED Overview
Strengthening Key Sectors — Energy
• Energy Efficient Enterprises — Helping enterprises become more energy efficient and avoid the impact of rising energy costs while reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
• How$martKY — Working with electric cooperatives to fund energy efficiency retrofits for homes and businesses.
• Kentucky Sustainable Energy Alliance — Advancing state policy that supports investment in energy efficiency and renewable energy.
Influencing Kentucky’s economic policy and advancing an Appalachian transition
Too often, state and federal policies inadequately support needed services and sustainable development, subsidize harmful development or ignore the unique concerns and needs of Central Appalachia. To achieve change at scale, public policy must shift.
• Appalachian Transition Initiative — Advance the regional conversation about the need, potential and path toward a more just, sustainable and prosperous future.
• Kentucky Center for Economic Policy — Conducting research, analysis and education on state fiscal and economic policy issues.
• Research and Policy — Providing information and analysis to help citizens and decision makers understand the challenges, issues and opportunities facing Kentucky and Central Appalachia.
In short, this organization sounds like your typical leftist propaganda and lobbying operation. It has no credibility.
I could go down the list it's claims and point out the flaws in each one, but I seldom bother. These leftwing operations all lie. You can't believe anything they say.
So what are saying is that "leftists" support clean energy, energy efficiency, energy independence while "rightwingnuts" support dirty energy, polluting the planet, and dependence on foreign oil. Well, bubba, we knew that already but it is good to see you admit it.
Fossil fuels are not, and never have been the sole supply for the power grid. So why would you expect alterative energy to be any different. The rest of your rant is a straw man, but then, you knew that already.
Because that's what all you morons keep insisting on.
Nobody is saying that we are going to phase out fossil fuels over night, so don't even go there.
Leftists support ridiculously expensive unreliable energy that can never be the sole supply for a power grid. Leftists support driving up the price of electricity until poor people can no longer afford it. They want us all to freeze in the dark.So what are saying is that "leftists" support clean energy, energy efficiency, energy independence while "rightwingnuts" support dirty energy, polluting the planet, and dependence on foreign oil. Well, bubba, we knew that already but it is good to see you admit it.
Fossil fuels are not, and never have been the sole supply for the power grid. So why would you expect alterative energy to be any different. The rest of your rant is a straw man, but then, you knew that already.
Because that's what all you morons keep insisting on.
Nobody is saying that we are going to phase out fossil fuels over night, so don't even go there.
You aren't going to "phase them out" for at least 150 years. Any attempt to do so only means vast hardship for the poor and a lower standard of living for everyone else.
Our lying little twink is at it again.MACED is a leftwing propaganda organ. Nothing it says is credible.Coal is the BIGGEST corporate welfare recipient in the country.
The taxpayers of Kentucky LOSE money subsidizing coal.
Report Coal industry costs state government GreenSpot Kentucky.com
In its latest study, MACED determined that coal delivered $527 million to the state in 2006, mostly through coal severance, corporate income, sales and vehicle taxes, plus taxes on 17,903 people employed in mining and 52,429 people in jobs that depend on mining.
The same year, MACED said, the coal industry cost the state $642 million.
This includes $239 million for frequent repairs to about 3,800 miles in the coal-haul road system, where trucks weighing up to 120,000 pounds crush the pavement as they carry coal from mines to tipples, trains, barges and power plants. Companies purchase state decals for the right to run coal trucks overweight, but that revenue offsets very little of the cost of road repairs.
Unknown to most taxpayers, MACED said, the state also gives the coal industry a variety of tax breaks, subsidizes the regulatory agencies that deal with its impact and even pays for pro-coal materials through a "coal education program" aimed at schoolchildren.
The severance taxes and mine permit fees the industry pays Frankfort to cover its costs have not increased in about 30 years. Of top coal-producing states, Kentucky gets the least from severance taxes — 2.9 percent of its tax income, compared with 7.1 percent for neighboring West Virginia.
Generations of Kentucky politicians have felt obliged to keep the coal industry happy, and that is reflected in the state's fiscal policy, said Ron Eller, an Appalachian historian at the University of Kentucky.
"The coal industry's resources are often used to support candidates, especially in Eastern Kentucky, who are favorable to its interests," Eller said. "To refuse to take coal money, or to speak out against coal's interests, often results in the defeat of a candidate."
The coal industry spent more than $1 million on state political donations in recent years and $255,145 to lobby the last two legislative sessions. Several top Kentucky lawmakers either own coal mines, hold white-collar posts at coal companies or do private business with coal.
How many times do these claims have to be debunked? I know, I'll be debunking them until the day an ice sheet is about to flatten New York.
The source of your information is an organization called MACED. I looked up their website, and they listed the following as some of their activities:
MACED Overview
Strengthening Key Sectors — Energy
• Energy Efficient Enterprises — Helping enterprises become more energy efficient and avoid the impact of rising energy costs while reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
• How$martKY — Working with electric cooperatives to fund energy efficiency retrofits for homes and businesses.
• Kentucky Sustainable Energy Alliance — Advancing state policy that supports investment in energy efficiency and renewable energy.
Influencing Kentucky’s economic policy and advancing an Appalachian transition
Too often, state and federal policies inadequately support needed services and sustainable development, subsidize harmful development or ignore the unique concerns and needs of Central Appalachia. To achieve change at scale, public policy must shift.
• Appalachian Transition Initiative — Advance the regional conversation about the need, potential and path toward a more just, sustainable and prosperous future.
• Kentucky Center for Economic Policy — Conducting research, analysis and education on state fiscal and economic policy issues.
• Research and Policy — Providing information and analysis to help citizens and decision makers understand the challenges, issues and opportunities facing Kentucky and Central Appalachia.
In short, this organization sounds like your typical leftist propaganda and lobbying operation. It has no credibility.
I could go down the list it's claims and point out the flaws in each one, but I seldom bother. These leftwing operations all lie. You can't believe anything they say.
"Truth will do well enough if left to shift for herself. She seldom has received much aid from the power of great men to whom she is rarely known & seldom welcome. She has no need of force to procure entrance into the minds of men. Error indeed has often prevailed by the assistance of power or force. Truth is the proper & sufficient antagonist to error.
Thomas Jefferson
'A complete picture'
Maxson said MACED favored the coal industry in several ways while conducting its study.
It did not account for costs related to air and water polluted by mining and coal-fired power plants, or workers sickened or crippled by coal jobs. It credited the industry for the full $224 million in coal severance taxes paid that year (after $18 million in special deductions), although half that money went to coal-producing counties and did not stay in the state's general fund.
Also, because MACED looked at 2006 data, it did not count the hundreds of millions of dollars in coal incentives approved during a special session of the legislature in 2007 at the request of Peabody Energy Corp. Like half of its fellow members in the Kentucky Coal Association, Peabody — which last year reported record cash flows — mines Kentucky coal but is headquartered in another state.
"Our purpose here isn't to beat up on coal," Maxson said. "It's education. We want to lay out a complete picture so our elected leaders can make informed decisions about how we proceed with our energy policy, our economic development policy and our fiscal policy."
Coal counties poorest
For all the wealth that coal produced over the last century, Eastern Kentucky's coal counties remain among the nation's poorest, Maxson said. Destructive mining practices, such as mountaintop removal, sacrifice the region's natural beauty, and with it other possible employers, such as tourism, he said.
End of story.
Hey pea brain, do you believe the coal industry is going to tell you how expensive their product really is? They are not going to tell you about the extreme cost of building haul roads that have to be 10 times deeper based than normal roads. They are not going to take any responsibility for the illnesses, doctor bills and lost work time their pollution causes. They stick it in the taxpayer's ass and you LOVE being butt fucked.
Horseshit. 120,000 lbs is only 60 tons. Trucks heavier than that drive down the freeway 10,000 times a day.
As for the illnesses and doctor bills, the employees have employer paid insurance, so yes they do take care of that. There is no pollution from coal mining, unless there's some kind of accident, and the emissions from coal fired power plants are insignificant. There is no evidence that anyone has ever become ill from such a source. None.
It's a boatload of lies.
Your source is a propaganda organ. Nothing it claims can be believed.
Leftists support ridiculously expensive unreliable energy that can never be the sole supply for a power grid. Leftists support driving up the price of electricity until poor people can no longer afford it. They want us all to freeze in the dark.How many times do these claims have to be debunked? I know, I'll be debunking them until the day an ice sheet is about to flatten New York.
The source of your information is an organization called MACED. I looked up their website, and they listed the following as some of their activities:
MACED Overview
Strengthening Key Sectors — Energy
• Energy Efficient Enterprises — Helping enterprises become more energy efficient and avoid the impact of rising energy costs while reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
• How$martKY — Working with electric cooperatives to fund energy efficiency retrofits for homes and businesses.
• Kentucky Sustainable Energy Alliance — Advancing state policy that supports investment in energy efficiency and renewable energy.
Influencing Kentucky’s economic policy and advancing an Appalachian transition
Too often, state and federal policies inadequately support needed services and sustainable development, subsidize harmful development or ignore the unique concerns and needs of Central Appalachia. To achieve change at scale, public policy must shift.
• Appalachian Transition Initiative — Advance the regional conversation about the need, potential and path toward a more just, sustainable and prosperous future.
• Kentucky Center for Economic Policy — Conducting research, analysis and education on state fiscal and economic policy issues.
• Research and Policy — Providing information and analysis to help citizens and decision makers understand the challenges, issues and opportunities facing Kentucky and Central Appalachia.
In short, this organization sounds like your typical leftist propaganda and lobbying operation. It has no credibility.
I could go down the list it's claims and point out the flaws in each one, but I seldom bother. These leftwing operations all lie. You can't believe anything they say.
So what are saying is that "leftists" support clean energy, energy efficiency, energy independence while "rightwingnuts" support dirty energy, polluting the planet, and dependence on foreign oil. Well, bubba, we knew that already but it is good to see you admit it.
Fossil fuels are not, and never have been the sole supply for the power grid. So why would you expect alterative energy to be any different. The rest of your rant is a straw man, but then, you knew that already.
That refers to the U.S. For the global economy, fossil fuels make up a significant component of manufacturing, food production, and shipping.
It refers to the economies of other countries as well, Canada, for instance, France, Germany, Japan, Russia, and China, just to name a few.
Leftists support ridiculously expensive unreliable energy that can never be the sole supply for a power grid. Leftists support driving up the price of electricity until poor people can no longer afford it. They want us all to freeze in the dark.How many times do these claims have to be debunked? I know, I'll be debunking them until the day an ice sheet is about to flatten New York.
The source of your information is an organization called MACED. I looked up their website, and they listed the following as some of their activities:
MACED Overview
Strengthening Key Sectors — Energy
• Energy Efficient Enterprises — Helping enterprises become more energy efficient and avoid the impact of rising energy costs while reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
• How$martKY — Working with electric cooperatives to fund energy efficiency retrofits for homes and businesses.
• Kentucky Sustainable Energy Alliance — Advancing state policy that supports investment in energy efficiency and renewable energy.
Influencing Kentucky’s economic policy and advancing an Appalachian transition
Too often, state and federal policies inadequately support needed services and sustainable development, subsidize harmful development or ignore the unique concerns and needs of Central Appalachia. To achieve change at scale, public policy must shift.
• Appalachian Transition Initiative — Advance the regional conversation about the need, potential and path toward a more just, sustainable and prosperous future.
• Kentucky Center for Economic Policy — Conducting research, analysis and education on state fiscal and economic policy issues.
• Research and Policy — Providing information and analysis to help citizens and decision makers understand the challenges, issues and opportunities facing Kentucky and Central Appalachia.
In short, this organization sounds like your typical leftist propaganda and lobbying operation. It has no credibility.
I could go down the list it's claims and point out the flaws in each one, but I seldom bother. These leftwing operations all lie. You can't believe anything they say.
So what are saying is that "leftists" support clean energy, energy efficiency, energy independence while "rightwingnuts" support dirty energy, polluting the planet, and dependence on foreign oil. Well, bubba, we knew that already but it is good to see you admit it.
Fossil fuels are not, and never have been the sole supply for the power grid. So why would you expect alterative energy to be any different. The rest of your rant is a straw man, but then, you knew that already.
Because that's what all you morons keep insisting on.
Nobody is saying that we are going to phase out fossil fuels over night, so don't even go there.
