Mountain News & World Report

This edition of Mountain News & World Report brings us the complicated legacy that coal is leaving in the mountains of southeastern, Kentucky. While on one hand we are proud to be miners and the children of miners, and we are grateful for the good paying jobs the industry has brought to the region, on the other hand, we are left wondering what now. In this time when the coal industry is in decline, we are reminded that the changes brought about by over a century mining coal aren’t easily adjusted. The first segment of this episode shares the story of Phillip Johnson and his family whose land has been strip-mined without their consent in recent years not unlike what was seen in the days of the Broadform Deed. While use of the broadform deed ended in 1988 through popular vote, the Johnsons found that there continues to be means by which a company can mine for minerals underneath the ground of a landowner who has not agreed to mining. Not only can they, but they can do so perfectly legally in Kentucky. WMM