Coal played political ju-jitsu with Obama, becoming more victim than villain in Central Appalachia

As the Obama administration started working on climate change and targeted certain strip-mining practices, the Central Appalachian coal industry has battled back with a pro-coal campaign that has turned into a war with environmental interests. The battle continues to heat up as more coal jobs are lost, and environmentalists push for alternatives to coal, John Cheves and Bill Estep report for the Lexington Herald-Leader. (H-L photo by Charles Bertram: A sign in the Knott County Courthouse in Eastern Kentucky)

The group Coal Mining Our Future was created "to ensure that citizens are informed about coal industry activities," according to its mission statement "The group sponsors pro-coal rallies, encourages letters and phone calls to politicians, conducts surface mine tours to show the usefulness of flat land, makes charitable donations and distributes pro-coal T-shirts and bumper stickers, such as the now-ubiquitous decal declaring 'If you don't like coal, don't use electricity'," Cheves and Estep report in the latest installment of a year-long series on Appalachian Kentucky that began in December.

It's all part of an "us versus them" mentality, uniting miners behind their bosses, something new in the coalfield, Al Cross, director of the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues at the University of Kentucky, told Cheves. Coal operators "are in a defensive mode, and they're gathering their friends around them. This has created, I think, kind of a siege mentality and a regional solidarity. There used to just be sympathy for miners. Now there is sympathy for an industry," Cross said in March speech entitled "From Villain to Victim: The Coal Industry's New Image in Appalachian Kentucky." In his column yesterday in The Courier-Journal, drawing from President Obama's plan to thwart climate change, Cross said "The industry has played political ju-jitsu with Obama’s policies, turning its public image from one of environmental and workplace villain into one of political victim. . . . Now there really is a war on coal."

Cross and the reporters cited polls in 2007 and 2011 by the Carsey Institute at the University of New Hampshire. Six years ago, 37 percent of people in Harlan and Letcher counties said natural resources should be used to create jobs today rather than be conserved for future generations, but by 2011, that number had jumped to 52 percent. Cross noted that the Great Recession surely had some effect on public opinion, too. (Map locates Harlan and Letcher counties in officially designated Appalachia)

The Lexington-based Kentucky Coal Association spent nearly $2 million over the past three years to promote the industry, and it backs Kentucky's Friends of Coal, which last year collected $174,790, by selling pro-coal merchandise and sponsoring popular events and a widely seen, official license plate. Kentucky politicians from both parties have appeared at its rallies to criticize President Obama and the Environmental Protection Agency. (Read more)