If you’re new here, you may want to subscribe to our RSS feed or daily email newsletter. | Sourced From NewsAndTribune.com|LEXINGTON — State Rep. Rocky Adkins, D-Sandy Hook, calls coal “the economic backbone” of the Appalachian region. “We’ve got to have it for jobs and the country has got to have it for energy,” Adkins said Monday just moments before joining Gov. Steve Beshear at the University of Kentucky Center for Applied Energy Research (CAER) to talk about a government-utility consortium.