Coalfield Native Writes of Industrys Disregard for Environment 

by Harriet Blake, excerpted from the Jan. 19 Green Right Now

A son of Appalachia and its coalfields, Arnold "Bud" Fultz has not forgotten his hometown of Wallins Creek, KY.

After 25 years as an airline exec with now-defunct Pan American World Airways, he felt compelled to speak out about what the coal industry was doing to the part of the country he calls home. In his book Fixing the Ungodly Mess: A Pathway to Change (AuthorHouse, 2008), Fultz takes aim at mountaintop removal mining, a technique of withdrawing coal from the mountains by removing up to 1,000 feet of a mountains summit.

"My heart never left the area and I still had relatives there I wanted to get back in touch with the people of Kentucky and West Virginia."

While Fultz is encouraged that President Obama says mountaintop removal is an issue he wants addressed by his administration, Fultz does have concerns about how this will be accomplished. "Our new Energy Secretary, [Nobel Prize winning physicist] Steven Chu, has indicated that clean coal will play a part in the countrys energy needs."

"All the clean coal in the world will not stop the environmental abuses that now exist," says Fultz

To fix "the ungodly mess" as his title indicates, Fultz says visionary leadership is needed, with particular attention on three fronts: renewable energy technology; affordable and accessible health care and a revitalized education system.

"My passionate objective is for citizens, both in the Appalachian coalfields and across the countryto rock the hell out of the boat to reverse ungodly policies, to regain our countrys greatness."

Read full article at tinyurl.com/azz2qz.