There’s Precedent for the Transition Assistance Eastern Kentucky Needs

There’s Precedent...

The new power plant rules proposed this week will make coal less competitive in the coming decades. It’s just one factor pointing toward continued decline in eastern Kentucky coal production, the main causes of which are the rising cost of Central Appalachian coal as the dwindling...
Real leadership for Appalachia necessary in upcoming elections

Real leadership for App...

Brace yourselves; election season is coming. We’re already seeing political ads claiming this candidate is taking us to hell in a hand basket, or that candidate is going to single-handedly save Kentucky. Unfortunately, so far there have been few candidates with any solid plans for...
State agency offers predictions for Kentucky’s energy future

State agency offers pre...

The Kentucky Department of Energy Development and Independence (DEDI) provided some eye-opening charts at a recent symposium on “The Future of Coal” at Northern Kentucky University. It’s no secret that coal in eastern Kentucky is in steep decline, but seeing where DEDI believes the...
Severance Tax Dollars Need Stronger Overall Strategy

Severance Tax Dollars N...

This blog is cross-posted at the Kentucky Center for Economic Policy. The House version of the new state budget takes $20 million of coal severance money the governor’s budget had allocated to region-wide programs and local governments and shifts money to over 400 earmarked local...
MACED releases new report; calls for creation of economic development planning body

MACED releases new repo...

In a report released today, the Mountain Association for Community Economic Development (MACED) calls for the creation of the Appalachian Planning and Development Fund (ADPF), a planning body that would create and develop an economic development plan for eastern Kentucky and oversee...
Use Abandoned Mine Lands funds for economic development in Appalachia

Use Abandoned Mine Land...

Back in August, we made the case for using Abandoned Mine Lands funds to put laid-off coal miners back to work reclaiming former mine sites in eastern Kentucky. The fund currently contains about $2.5 billion, which could provide immediate relief for a group of folks whom we believe could...
Read More
We could put miners back to work today – so why aren’t we?

We could put miners bac...

In Washington, DC there exists a pot of money – nearly $2.5 billion – that could be used today to put Appalachians back to work repairing the environmental damage from abandoned mine sites. And yet, it's not being spent. The reason why is the usual suspect: politics....

“It doesn’t take ...

The latest issue of LEO Weekly, a news magazine out of Louisville, features a cover story on the coal severance tax. “Reclaiming Kentucky,” by Willie Davis, explores the questions so many of us have been asking for some time: what is the best use of the severance tax?...