Monday, April 27th, 2009

An expert on Appalachia comes to the heart of coal country and calls for the end of surface mining. UK professor Ron Eller made those comments during the keynote speech at the East Kentucky Leadership Awards Ceremony in Hazard.

“We must begin, I think, by abolishing surface mining. Including the radically destructive practice of mountain top removal,” says Dr. Eller.

Pulitzer nominated author Ron Eller called surface mining “cheap” in his speech and said it was not necessary for the coal industry.

“Ultimately however, in the long run, we will have move away from an extractive economy, especially one based upon coal,” says Dr. Eller.

Many in the audience, which included several lawmakers, strongly disagreed with those comments. Aside from the controversial remarks, seven people were recognized for their hard work in the mountains.

“We see some of these TV programs that really sort of make me mad, because obviously we’ve got problems here we’ve got problems other places in Kentucky,” says Governor Steve Beshear.

read the whole article here:
http://www.wkyt.com/wymtnews/headlines/43600512.html

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