MULBERRY, Tenn. — For decades, the whiskey and bourbon makers of Tennessee and Kentucky have been beloved in their communities. The distilleries where the liquor is manufactured and barrelhouses where it is aged have complemented the rural character of their neighborhoods, while providing jobs and the pride of a successful homegrown industry.In Kentucky, where 95% of the world’s bourbon is manufactured, counties are revolting after thethey have depended on to fund schools, roads and utilities.
“Our industry was always a handshake agreement,” Summers said. Now, those agreements are being broken. “I know it was tough. You had an industry that supports so many jobs and calls Kentucky home. At the same time, you’ve got communities that have helped build that industry. I know there are, right now, probably some difficult feelings,“ Beshear said in a news conference.
In lobbying for the end of the tax, the distillers’ group suggested the industry could leave Kentucky. Officials like Summers are calling that a bluff. He said Bullitt County does not want any new barrelhouses unless things change, and he is not alone. The “whiskey fungus” has been been a nuisance around liquor facilities for centuries, but the size and scope of the new barrelhouse complexes means much more ethanol is being released in a concentrated area. The fungus covers nearby homes and cars in a sooty black film, choking trees and shrubs.
Butler and several other neighbors want Jack Daniel’s to capture its ethanol emissions instead of releasing them into the neighborhood. The company would not comment on the fungus but spokesman Svend Jansen provided a statement saying it “will continue to work hard to be a good partner to all members of our community.”