Ernie, Jody, David and company meet with Peabody.

The long talked about meeting between Gov. Fletcher, Speaker Richards and President Williams is taking place today. Will Jody get his commitment or will he promise another sine die come Monday? Will the Gov. prevail with an "I told you so, Jody"?

We will soon know the answers to the questions, but I think it is interesting to note that Peabody's proposal is to build a plant on a site "[w]e hope to have ... within 90 days", near an existing Peabody mine in Western Kentucky, southern Indiana or Illinois. Peabody "anticipate(s) completing the scoping and feasibility analysis within a year," and basing "[o]ur final site selection ... on that analysis."

Whether Peabody intends to choose a site (in a state of Western Kentucky, Southern Indiana or Illinois) within 90 days and then the land within one of those states after a "final site selection study" is completed "within a year", or whether the choice of a state to be completed "within a year" is not very clear.

What will be clearer after the meeting, hopefully, is whether an urgency of a special session is warranted (which will be the case if Peabody has a decision to make before the General Assembly re-convenes in January), leaving for our elected officials to decide whether there is any wisdom in luring Peabody with a financial incentive package (which will be the case if that is the ONLY way Peabody will choose Kentucky, and the BENEFITS flowing to Kentuckians from their investments outweigh ALL the COSTS of having Peabody's business).