Dear Editor,

There are three articles on page A2 of the April 17 issue of The Advocate-Messenger that relate directly to the results of the November elections. The first is Amanda Wheeler’s article entitled “Celebrate National Park Week by exploring, enjoying nature.” I would strongly second her admonition, but I would recommend that you do it quickly. The Trump administration plans to open up National Parks to fracking, drilling, and mining. They also plan to cut back on staffing, maintenance, and acquisition of land for new parks. In fact, the Trump administration does not believe that the government should hold public land and their ultimate goal is to sell off the national parks to their billionaire supporters at cut rate prices.

One of the other articles involves the hauling of coal ash from the Dale Station power plant adjacent to the Kentucky River to Smith station property in Trapp for storage. It seems that the coal ash pounds at the Dale plant were and had been leaking arsenic, selenium, mercury, cadmium and other toxic heavy metals into the river and groundwater for years.

The E.W. Brown power plant in Mercer County on Herrington Lake is guilty of the same infraction and they are also taking steps to remediate the situation. Eastern Kentucky Power Cooperative (EKPC) is not doing this work out of the goodness of its heart. EKPC has been cited under existing statutes, which forbid the poisoning of the nation’s rivers, lakes, and streams. 

Under Trump’s appointee Scott Pruitt, EPA regulations are going to be weakened, ignored and ultimately repealed, as the aim of the new cabinet secretary is to destroy and eliminate the agency that he has been charged to run.

The third article reports that London-Laurel County is receiving a $397,524 grant from the Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC) to extend water, sewer and transportation infrastructure. The county, which went heavily for Trump in November, is no doubt happy about receiving these funds. They had better enjoy them while they can, as the ARC is one of the many agencies in Trump’s proposed budget slated to be eliminated.

So I guess if this is what you voted for in November of last year, you will be happy about these things; otherwise, not so much. One question — is this what he meant about making America great again?

Jim Porter

Danville