An economic opportunity or a threat to the health and livability of our region?
by Rodney Berry
Kathy Strobel, Research Assistant
Coal-fired power plants in Kentucky and our region: What should we do?
Option 2. Halt construction of new coal-fired power plants.
This option suggests that our area should not succumb to the pressures and enticements to provide electricity for other areas. Enough is enough.
Those who support this option may say
Those who oppose this option may say
Kentucky (and our area) should not produce electricity for the rest of the nation and be left with the remains: polluted air and water, health consequences, ravaged forests and ecosystem, tarnished aesthetic appeal.
Some coal-fired power plants, such as the facility near Owensboro in Rockport, Ind., do not even purchase local coal and the generated electricity is shipped to northern Indiana and Michigan. Our area is left with the pollution and an uninviting industrial image.
The coal industry should not expand until miners can be assured of safer working conditions.
Expanded mining means more nearby houses with damaged foundations from blasting, lower property values, more noise, dust, damaged roads and clogged streams.
It makes more sense for our nation to develop its own natural resources, such as coal, than to rely on foreign oil. We should seize this opportunity.
Clean coal technologies are available and new power plants emit a small percentage of the pollutants of the aging facilities. Coal companies are obligated to reclaim the land.
More power plants in this area will ensure a steady market for Kentucky coal which means more good jobs, increased tax revenues and payroll that turns over many times in local communities. Families that own mineral rights will benefit from royalties.
In some areas, such as the Appalachian mountains of eastern Kentucky, there are few employment opportunities other than coal mining.