Tuesday, June 22, 2010
Legislature Study Says Coal Industry Takes More Than It Gives
Posted by Jeff Woods on Tue, Jun 22, 2010 at 12:03 PM
"We've long suspected that citizens, as taxpayers, carry an unfair share of the externalized costs of coal mining," said SOCM Strip Mine Committee Chair, Cathie Bird. "This report takes us a huge step forward in trying to quantify some of the costs the people of Tennessee pay so that the coal industry can profit."
The report contains a critical flaw, however. In making the calculations, it fails to account for the most important number: the industry's nearly $200,000 in political contributions to Lt. Gov. Ron Ramsey over the past year. At the legislature, that trumps everything else.
Comments (4)
Showing 1-4 of 4
I think the test for any resource removal operation, coal-mining, oil-drilling, even rock quarrying should be does it leave the local community better off economically and at least as well off environmentally as it was before?
I don't know of a case where big Coal has ever passed the test.
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"An environmental group has produced a report ..."
No they haven't.
They've produced a propaganda piece.
That's all "environmental" groups are capable of doing.
dead on the money...now Im waiting for a report from the American Cancer society to see how well Pilot Oil is faring....should be interesting to see how many cases of lung cancer can be atrributed to them....
Stoney/Gilbert,
How about throwing out a fact every now and then instead of just saluting the flag of corporatism. You could start with how much better off Tennessee is with all the out-of-state folks operating heavy equiment to haul out our resources. The report in question reports a deficit. If you disagree, you must have better information. What is it?
