Legacy and Responsibility
During the past several years, KCC has been working in a shared office space with friends at the Frankfort Farmer’s Market and Apogee Climate and Energy Transitions in downtown Frankfort. Just prior to the start of this year’s General Assembly, we learned our shared arrangement would be re-locating, and we have been slowly transitioning to a new space in another part of town. Summertime has finally given us the chance to unpack and go through many boxes that contained an impressive history.
KCC has been your champion in Frankfort for more than half a century. In going through the historical boxes of records, the reason for our resilience became very clear. It is due to the legacy of longtime KCC members and supporters— including familiar names with a long history of environmental work…..Robert Reeves, Hugh Archer, Mary Mayhew, Hank Graddy, Oscar Geralds, Karen Armstrong Cummings, Bill Martin, David Wicks, Art Williams….names like Barnett, Kingsolver, Fitzgerald, Bingham, Schimmoeller….we hesitate to make a list because we risk overlooking those who are equally important in the environmental movement. But it has been a humbling experience to go through these records and we hope our work is living up to this legacy of environmental heroes.
With this in mind, we also want to acknowledge the recent passing of James Bruggers, longtime environmental reporter for the Louisville Courier-Journal and Inside Climate News. As hard as it is some days to fight environmental injustice, it is often even more difficult to track an environmental issue with persistence and distill it into a detailed yet understandable story that keeps the public aware and informed. We will miss Jim’s talent and friendship.
Left: The emerging generation of climate leaders at a recent national conference. Right: brainstorming session on climate strategy.
Meanwhile, we had the opportunity to meet a new generation of environmental leaders. We spent some days this past week at a national climate conference, giving us the opportunity to touch base and strategize with several other environmental nonprofits for networking and inspiration. What we heard matched what we have also experienced with our local allies and regional partners during their own planning exercises….that this is a time to build on everyone’s collective progress and reflect on critical questions: What do we need to do more of? What do we need to do less of? Do we have the resources to match? Is our strategy on target in a continually shifting political landscape?
We have been spending the Spring and Summer so far comparing notes and refining action plans. One thing that is also clear, is that both local and national nonprofits are struggling under the weight of multiple environmental threats. However all of these groups were determined to not let the current political landscape slow them down. We do need everyone’s help to ensure that the movement has the resources needed to address the moment we are in, so we hope you will continue to support KCC, but even more importantly, help us to grow our membership and connect us with future partner groups who may need our services.
Birding groups explored the wetlands and birding habitat at a former nuclear production site. Our thanks to Wild Birds Unlimited Lexington for coordinating with KCC to explore this site and learn about its nuclear history. Join us for future trips—watch our website and we will also arrange them on request.
Meanwhile, we want to make sure we are taking the time to see our members and supporters as often as possible to hear your feedback and keep everyone connected to emerging and continuing issues. We hope you will be able to join us during one of our upcoming activities. You may have seen some of our recent field trips or connected with us on a webinar….we hope you will stay connected on our social media as well, because we are living through a time where issues are evolving quickly. We want to thank those of you who were able to join us on one of our recent field trips to a former nuclear site to learn about the history of nuclear energy in the region, and how former brownfields are being reconstructed as natural habitats. The area is personal to our Executive Director, who lived not far from this site and is glad to run additional trips for groups. Our thanks to Wild Birds Unlimited Lexington for partnering with us on our most recent field trip to the Fernald Preserve near Cincinnati. [The Preserve will also be holding a MAPS bird banding on Monday 6/29 - reach out to Luke.thies@lm.doe.gov for information.]
Conservation Brief
KCC Members in good standing should have received our latest edition of our KCC Conservation Issue Brief and Legislative Review. If you did not receive this current issue, we may not have your physical mailing address in our files, so please contact us to make sure your information is up to date. In the meantime, you can also access our brief online.
Legislative Updates
Electric Vehicles: KCC has been working with our allies at the EvolveKY Electric Vehicle Group to present to lawmakers on how the electric vehicle economy in Kentucky is generating revenue. That meeting is presently scheduled for 10:30 on July 1, subject to schedule updates. Watch the legislative interim session calendar for updates.
Healthy Soils: We are also hosting a screening of the film Roots So Deep — a film on regenerative farming, in Maysville to support our continuing efforts on passing Healthy Soils legislation. The presentation will be at the Mason Co. Library’s community room, 218 E. 3rd St., Maysville, KY. Signup here.
Supreme Court weighs in on toxics: As you may recall, during the last session, the Kentucky General Assembly overrode Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear’s veto to enact Senate Bill 199, an act related to pesticide labeling. The law establishes that if a pesticide—such as Bayer’s Roundup—carries a warning label approved by the federal EPA, that label is deemed legally sufficient, protecting manufacturers from "failure-to-warn" lawsuits in state courts. This bill was heavily promoted by the Kentucky Farm Bureau. KCC strongly opposed the bill due to impacts to public safety. This week, the Supreme Court weighed in, now blocking thousands of lawsuits against Bayer. Read more here.
Taking Action on Data Centers: When House Bill 775 passed with little notice during the final hours of the 2025 General Assembly, many opposed the language that provided sales and use tax exemptions for data center projects. During the 2026 General Assembly, lawmakers failed to pass legislation to regulate data centers. But local governments are now speaking out. KCC is partnering with our allies at KFTC with a petition to lawmakers. Read more here and let lawmakers know how you feel about your tax dollars being used for data centers.
More resources on KCC’s Data Center Page here.
Federal Updates
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), through its Office of Energy Dominance Financing (EDF), has issued a conditional loan commitment of up to $17.5 billion aimed at accelerating the deployment of 10 new large-scale nuclear reactors across the United States. The financing package would support the purchase of long-lead equipment for a fleet of new nuclear projects equipped with Westinghouse’s AP1000 reactors. More here. and here. Meanwhile, Kentucky recently announced a record-breaking $1.7B nuclear enrichment plant that is planned for Paducah. More here.