Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. (6/16/11)

Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.

Senior Attorney, Natural Resources Defense Council

Blowing the peaks off mountains to remove coal is one of America's hottest environmental flashpoints. Now Kennedy is shining a light on mountain-top removal in Appalachia nearly four decades after his father campaigned against strip mining there. Kennedy and filmmaker Bill Haney traveled for several years to West Virginia and compiled nearly 500 hours of footage in the heart of coal country. They hope the resulting new documentary, The Last Mountain, will lead Americans to understand how they are connected to the lives and landscapes in the film. The federal government has gradually tightened restrictions on mountain-top removal, and there is essentially a national moratorium on building new coal power plants. But America is still largely a coal-fired nation, and Kennedy contends that there is a cleaner way to power our economy. Join us for an evening with one of America's most passionate environmentalists.

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• commonwealth club
• robert kennedy jr
• environment
• coal
• clea energy

[abweller]

This is an amazing speech on our times & the state of affairs with corporations running everything & the need to reduce carbon energy useage...too bad only 700 people have seen it! The woman who asks at the end about "burden of proof" reminds me of locals who want to make a statement instead of asking a question... they take up more than their share of air time & make position statements...is that fair or ok with the rest of us who must listen to a poorly thought out long winded statement?

[tonyg0123]

@Uaz31 exactly! this is the exact reason that we must shrink government. A smaller government means that these corporations will have much less influence and power in D.C. The more money we, as taxpayers keep sending to Washington, the more powerful these corporations become. Unfortunelty, I don't think many people realize this...The democrats actually think these "regulations" are keeping things equal, yet they don't understand how the regulations are enforced and that they r being paid off.

[foggymedia]

Brilliant man from the Kennedy clan. Need more people of privilege like this.

[RSFREAK969]

@MT2R A sizable portion of his proposal was to entitle ordinary people with power production abilities and creating a marketplace for energy, so your second to last statement is near completely invalid. Though democracy promotes violence, that's a narrow way to define it for it promotes many things, namely right to express an opinion and safety to speak of it in such a way. I am not championing democracy, but it is all too clear that you are befuddling democracy with communism.

[mcjacktwo]

I have to wonder why he'd do this interview, or be in The Last Mountain, if he's unwilling to support the Cape Wind project? Just like his uncle Ted before him, he's a NIMBY. And a hypocrite...

[MT2R]

Promoters of democracy are promoters of violence. It's the mob forcibly taking the resources, production, and freedom of individuals and pretending it's ok because of some ambiguous contract written a few hundred years ago. Thinking people are born without freedom and rights to their own production, as democracy does, is slavery. RFK Jr, stop initiating violence against your fellow man.

[MT2R]

By the way, blaming corporations is off-the-mark. Corporations are a state/gov't created entity. This is the state interfering. It was also the state that set-up the crummy large infrastructure that RFK Jr seems to love. None of these have been good things. Free market all the way! RFK Jr comes off as a looter for 'his investment' ideas here. I'm sure he has convinced himself that it's all for our good, but let's not kid ourselves about his huge potential monetary gain here.

[MT2R]

Sadly, while this is good overall, it's quite dishonest to say those opposed to the 'warmers' agenda are just tools of propaganda. The best science is showing the CO2/IPCC stuff is incoorect due to negative feedback from clouds, CO2 saturation in the atmosphere making additional greenhouse effect from CO2 non-existent, and the role of the Sun's activity on our temperatures. Looks more likely for cooling in the near future. Of course, with his investments tied to the warming lie...

[tonyg0123]

I love how libs want to say that these big "evil" coporations are spending money to disprove AGW. Do u liberals realize how much money is going into these green jobs, that are supposedly going to "save the planet"? The whole thing is a scam across the board and people r making money hand over fist at our expense. Do you know Enron was the company that came up with cap n trade? It's gonna contol our carbon footprint, right? U libs wanna give government power to adhere to these corporate demands?