Just Within Reach Newsletter
Kevin's response to coal article
Date: August 4, 2001
Source: Just Within Reach
With Permission from:
[email protected]
Letters to the Editor
Magazine
The New York Times
As a native of Kentucky I was glad that Jeff Goodell's article "How Coal Got
Its Glow Back" (July 22, 2001) finally exposed the rest of the country to the
business of mechanized coal extraction and its devastating impact on the
people and land of the mid-South. While at home in Kentucky, I too had the
opportunity to fly over mountaintop removal mine sites and witness firsthand
the massive transformation of forests and mountains and streams into a
wasteland.
As our government debates a national energy policy for our country, they need
to remember that coal is not really the "cheap" source of energy proponents
claim. Right now coal is cheaper than other energy sources because the
mining companies are allowed to rip off mountain tops, fill valleys and clog
watersheds with dirt, and dump toxic soups of acids, heavy metals and sludge
in huge lakes. Right now electricity from coal is cheap because old power
plants get to ignore clean air laws that others must abide by.
There's no question coal will continue to play a vital role in our country's
energy needs for the future. Let's just make sure coal companies play by the
same set of environmental rules. If their free ride were to disappear and
the corporations that mine coal and burn it to light our homes had to cover
the actual costs of their business, including the clean up and disposal of
their waste products and true restoration of the lands they exploit, maybe
we'd discover that coal is not such a bargain after all. Maybe then we'd
make more than a token effort at exploring more renewable sources of energy.
I think we'd discover that they're the real bargains because they'll not only
help us to grow and thrive as a country but do so while protecting the land,
water and air for our kids.
Kevin Richardson
Lexington, Kentucky
Los Angeles, California
Orlando, Florida
C/o 3940 Laurel Canyon Blvd., PMB 256
Studio City, CA 91604
Phone: 310/770-9091
* Kevin Richardson is a member of the pop group Backstreet Boys and founder
of the Just Within Reach Earth Foundation
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