Appalachian scholar calls for strip-mine ban; top lawmaker says no, but calls for better land use

Ron Eller, the leading historian of modern Appalachia, told an annual gathering of Eastern Kentucky leaders last night that strip mining should be banned "for the good of the state's economy," reports Dori Hjalmarson of the Lexington Herald-Leader.

Eller, left, author of Uneven Ground, a recently published history of Appalachian development since 1945, gave the keynote speech at the East Kentucky Leadership Conference in Hazard. He "said the state must recognize declining coal reserves, political opposition to coal-fired energy, and rising regulations on carbon-dioxide emissions," Hjalmarson writes.

"He said governments must foster entrepreneurship and a regional, homegrown economy that is not dependent on extractive industries. Eller said jobs lost in surface mining could be buoyed by underground mining and replaced by sustainable forestry, tourism and green energy production. There is potential for tourism but only if the environment is preserved."

"Reaction was not entirely warm," Hjalmarson reports. Eller's 20-minute speech drew much applause but several in the room sat silently. As he accepted the East Kentucky Leadership Foundation's award for service to the region by a private individual, he joked, "I wasn't sure you were still going to give me this." Between his appearances at the lectern, Chad Warrix and David Tolliver of the country-music duo Halfway 2 Hazard, winners of the foundation's annual arts and culture award, won applause when they said they were supporters of the coal industry.

Eller closed his speech with an emotional observation that when he joined the University of Kentucky history department, he took the office left by the late Harry Caudill, author of Night Comes to the Cumberlands, which drew national attention to the area in the 1960s. To this observer, it seemed that our friend Ron was channeling our friend Harry, whose monogrammed briefcase still sits on the office bookcase. We agree with union steelworker Willie Blevins of Ashland, who won the Tony Turner Award for service to the region and complimented the foundation "for encouraging dialogue and debate on those very serious issues that confront our region today." The conference continues today.

UPDATE: State House Speaker Greg Stumbo of Prestonsburg, right, the final speaker of the conference, revised his remarks to respond to Eller today, Herald-Leader columnist Tom Eblen reports: "Some of what Stumbo said was defensive: Why do people who no longer live in the mountains think they know what's best for them? Subdivisions built on Lexington farmland are just as bad for the environment as surface mining in the mountains. Some of it was matter of fact: We must move beyond coal, which will eventually be gone. We also must understand that coal produces half the nation's electricity — and more than 90 percent of Kentucky's electricity — and nothing can change that any time soon."

"And some of what Stumbo said was new and interesting: Rather than abolish surface mining, which he said isn't economically practical, leaders in Eastern Kentucky must become more creative and demanding about how mined land is reclaimed and reused. Stumbo cited several examples where mined land has been turned into airports, subdivisions, parks, golf courses and commercial development. But he also acknowledged that much other mined land has been poorly reclaimed as useless 'pasture.' " Stumbo lives in a golf-course subdivision developed on a reclaimed strip mine with federal and state assistance.

To read Eblen's column, click here. To listen to his excerpts of Eller's and Stumbo's speeches, click here. For Eller's full speech, click here.