For about as many generations as Anglos have been settled in the hills of East Tennessee, primary products from the area have been black coal and white lightning.

I suppose it is appropriate that the boot boy has dealt with both products during the recent session of the Tennessee General Assembly.

As speaker of the Senate, boot boy was involved in legislation that sort of, kind of, well…almost legalized production of white lightening.  And, he engineered political maneuvers to block legislation that would limit mountain top removal coal mining practices.

During the governor candidates’ debate on Monday night, boot boy had an intriguing response to a question about promoting green power sources.  As he rambled through a response, the boot boy concluded by saying the state has 200 years worth of coal remaining in the ground.

That may be true.  I can’t imagine what research he is drawing on to get that kind of number for such a non-renewable energy source.  Even if we go with that number, how does he plan to get that coal out of the ground?  Some coal veins are just not accessible.  And, many may be accessible but the cost to the environment is not worth it.

If there is anything to be learned from the Deepwater Horizon oil rig disaster, it is that we must carefully weigh the consequences of pursuing our next energy fix.  Boot boy, apparently, would be willing to level every hill in East Tennessee and fill every valley and stream with rock and sludge grubbing for that last nugget of coal.

Even if Tennessee Republicans do not nominate boot boy for governor, he still has two more years in his current Senate term.  And, no doubt, his Republican loyalty club will keep him as Senate speaker.  We can only hope that the good folks of Sullivan County will see fit in 2012 to bring him home rather than return him to Nashville.  By the time he gets home the hills of East Tennessee will be flattened so badly that he will think he is in the Memphis flat lands.

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