[TidesHoss32]

ok, an average of 123 miners per county in Eastern Kentucky. Take those jobs away from them, and Eastern Kentucky has NOTHING to fall back on. Yes Im biased. Im all for mining. And yes, you are EXACTLY right, that Eastern Kentucky is one of the poorest regions in the entire country, so why bash one of the very few jobs where someone can make a decent living at? You can pull this "you dont have any facts, you arent nearly as knowledgable as me" shit all you want, but its this crazy world you all live in that allows you to believe that theres going to be ANYTHING at all here IF you people get your way. I dont use facts, I use common sense. No 123 per county ISNT a significant number, but you take half those away, and thats over 60 starving familes. But hey, your friggin trees will be safe. Ill bet you'll be tickled pink going to bed knowing that. Yeah, stick it to those "horrible coal industries. Those law breaking greedy bastards.............that feeds familes". OK, point of it all is this..You say we need to prepare for the future. How? You say there are alternative energy sources, and that we'll never run out of energy, which is true. NOW, tell me, until those sources are prevalent in this area, what should they do without mining? How will they get the money to use those alternative energy sources around this area? And what alternative energy sources would work not only around here, but for the entire country? Because coal makes up 52% of our nations power. Of which Im sure your well aware. You say theres no such thing as clean coal, that its an oxymoron. You say you love those that stand up to the coal operators. Yet you even admit that coal is our best option. What the hell do you want them to do? You want them to mine cleaner? Ill bet you want 200mph sports cars to get 60 miles per gallon to dont you? Yeah, we all oppose greedy power companies, who doesnt? You say that I may not realize it but coal is not our savior, but right now, IT IS. Until our "smarter generation" comes up with ways that our region can make a decent living, IT IS the only hope for many families to make ends meet. And explain to me how you'd mine coal cleaner? You say we are a smarter generation, which I still believe is crap, by the way. Our generation is a wasteful generation. Our generation is lazy and selfish. And I do love this area, but like I said, when Im getting paid $58,000 a year to plant trees, stock streams, and bitch about coal companies, Ill stop mining. Until then, mining IS my savior. As its been for our family for over 100 years. And Im not angry. Im realistic.

Why are you calling me biased for stating my opinion, when you're being very biased yourself. You gave your fair share of "bumper sticker" slogans. "Coal keeps the lights on" "Coal feeds my family", come on, don't bash for doing something and then do it yourself. And why get so angry, I never said we should take all jobs away from miners, Strip mining has taken more jobs from miners than any environmental group has.
All your statement showed is that your biased, not once did you try to present facts, all you gave where overused prejudice statements like "environmentalist hate the government, and the law, and our president." I will admit that I strongly dislike our president, but I dislike him for more reasons than his environmental views. And I really want you to explain to me how I hate our laws, when I'm trying to get coal mining companies to obey them?

Yes Coal gives men in this area jobs, but not as many as you claim, on average there is only 123 miners per county in eastern Kentucky, thats not a significant number.

Your statement that "tourism doesn't keep the lights on" is just funny, you don't have anything knowledgeable to say, so you just give me an overused statement. I'm not saying we should stop all mining tomorrow, we just need to control the outrageous destruction caused by MTR. Coal is not the only energy source, and it's not going to last forever, we need to prepare for the future, there are other energy sources. (we can never run out of energy, its impossible, but coal will run out.) Until we can have other energy sources available, coal is the best option, but I believe we can mine the coal in a more environmentally friendly way. Remember we all share the same planet.

It's people like you who refuse to see the truth. I oppose strip mining, not miners. I oppose power greedy energy companies, not hard working Appalachian people. I don't believe that it's right for us to sit around and watch our home be destroyed.
Eastern Kentucky is among the poorest regions in the country, but listening to you, someone would never know that. I know you wont believe it , but mining is not our savior.The Appalachian region is the most ecologically diverse region in North America, all I wont to do is to protect it. I want to save this area for future generations to enjoy, I want to save our culture, I want to save everything that makes this area special. It's just sad that people like you claim to love this region, but you wont do anything to stop companies from taking away everything that makes it so special.

I am not biting the hand that feeds me, I'm trying to extend a hand to the future generations.