Here in Kentucky the death of King Coal will be a bitter pill. This beautiful Commonwealth has long been a victim of extraction industries that pillage the natural wealth and leave destruction. The people here in Louisa and in much of this state blame the environmentalists and Barack Obama for the death of King Coal but the blame is misplaced.
Years ago Kentucky enacted the Coal Severance Tax which was to return to those coal producing counties a portion of the wealth torn from their soil. That money was to be used to diversify the economic base for the time that coal would necessarily decline as a source of revenue. The blame for the dearth of economic opportunity we now face should be squarely laid at the feet of local and state governments and the short sighted people who ran them for their failure to have enough vision to lead the people along the path of prosperity using different economic models. In this article one person even says that one of his relatives drives a Komatsu bulldozer. The bulldozer isn't even American.
Now the time has come that we can no longer rely on King Coal to provide cheap electricity and decent paying jobs. It has run its course, one that was completely predictable. Natural gas is plentiful and cheap and cleaner although it too will run its course as will the dependency on the burning of fossil fuels must in order to save the human race. Make no mistake, the planet will survive but the geological record holds proof that humans are not necessary.
Don't blame Barack Obama, there are those to blame who are much closer to home.
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