"The top ends up flatter, but we're not talking about Mount Everest. We're talking about these little knobby hills that are everywhere out here. And I've seen the reclaimed lands. One of them is 800 acres, with a sports complex on it, elk roaming, covered in grass." Most people, he continues, "would say the land is of enhanced value, because now you can build on it."
"Let's let you decide what to do with your land," he says. "Really, it's a private-property issue." This is a gentler, more academic variation on a line he used the evening before, during his speech at the Harlan Center: "If you don't live here, it's none of your business."
Wow. I'll at least give him credit for publicly saying out loud the real position of the coal industry and their hired politicians.
Here's a guy who thinks a piece of land only has value if you can build something on it. Who cares that they're the oldest mountains in America? Who cares if they'll never regain the rich diversity of plant and animal life they once had? So what if there won't be any drinkable water for miles around? Who cares if they inspired an incredible part of our nation's musical and cultural heritage?
All Rand Paul can see is whether they're flat enough to build a strip mall and golf resort.
There's one thing Rand Paul and I kind of agree on. All the outside property owners and coal industry executives who never lived in Kentucky should mind their own business instead of blowing up mountains. Let's not pretend that it's the people of Kentucky who get rich off the coal mining industry.
Just for fun, here's a clip of Kentucky bluegrass that I found on Appalshop's Youtube page.