Tennessee mountainsNASHVILLE — In advance of legislative hearings today on a bill banning “mountaintop” removal of coal in the state, the Tennessee Conservative Union on Tuesday launched a blistering ad attack on the practice and charged the Volunteer State will “become the first state in America to permit a communist Chinese company to destroy our mountains.”
TCU Chairman Lloyd Daugherty said, “Every Tennessean, regardless of political affiliation, should be appalled by the idea of allowing the red Chinese to destroy the very mountains crossed by Daniel Boone.”
While Tennessee is “a proud red [Republican] state … the Tennessee Conservative Union is not willing to go that red,” Daugherty said.
He noted that while the group, which bills itself as the state’s largest and oldest conservative group, is “100 percent pro-coal, [however] our organization does not support destroying our mountain heritage.”
He charged that using explosives on ridges above 2,000 feet “kills mining jobs because it takes fewer workers to blow up a mountain.”