In the heart of West Virginia, amidst the remnants of a community deserted seven decades ago, the victor of this year's West Virginia Coal Festival teen beauty pageant, Ava Johnson, strolls.
She envisions the rusted relics of coal tipples and processing plants springing back to life. Johnson, a 16-year-old history enthusiast, acknowledges that the coal industry in West Virginia will never regain its former glory.
However, as she meanders along the overgrown railway tracks near the deserted Kay Moor mine in the New River Gorge National Park, she hears whispers of optimism about the future of an industry that has provided her state with well-paying jobs for nearly two centuries.
You cant appreciate being a true West Virginian unless you realize that people risk their lives every single day to make ours better, Johnson stated. According to the Associated Press, this renewed sense of hope is largely due to the actions of President Donald Trump. Earlier this month, he issued new executive orders aimed at revitalizing coal, a fossil fuel that scientists have long identified as the world's most polluting and a significant contributor to global warming.
Trump, who pledged to "save coal" during his 2016 presidential campaign, issued orders to permit mining on federal land and to relax some emissions standards designed to mitigate coal's environmental impact. All those plants that have been closed are going to be opened, if they're modern enough, Trump declared at the signing ceremony. (or) theyll be ripped down and brand-new ones will be built.
This news was greeted with enthusiasm in West Virginia, where residents like Johnson believe the coal industry is misunderstood and that they are weary of being ignored by their fellow Americans. However, not everyone is convinced that Trump will be able to deliver on the promises he has made to some of his most loyal supporters.
Tyson Slocum, an energy and climate policy professor at the University of Maryland Honors College and the energy program director for the nonprofit Public Citizen, accused Trump and his allies of "spinning a false narrative." He argued that market forces have shifted away from coal in ways that cannot be reversed, a view widely held among economists. Theres nothing that Trump can do thats going to materially impact the domestic coal market, Slocum said in a telephone interview. The energy markets, the steel markets, have fundamentally changed. And learning how to adapt and how to provide the real solutions to the concerns and fears in coal communities would be a more effective strategy than promising them a return that isnt going to happen.
Despite this, the mood at a recent coal exposition in Charleston was largely optimistic. Many attendees, including Johnson, found encouragement in the Republican president's words, even if some expressed doubt about his ability to restore the coal industry to its former glory. For years, our industry has felt like its been a little bit of a whipping boy, like a political, sacrificial pawn, said Steven Tate of Viacore, a company that manufactures a device that helps mine operators limit the amount of coal dust in a mine. We feel like were finally starting to get the recognition that our industry deserves.
Some attendees argued that Trump's orders demonstrated respect for the workers who lost their lives in the mines 21,000 in West Virginia, the highest number in any state and for a resource that played a crucial role in building America. Trump stood his ground all the way through," said Jimbo Clendenin, a retired mine equipment specialist whose grandson began working in the coal industry three years ago. "He said he was for coal. And a lot of people even a couple of them here in West Virginia said, 'I just think he said that to get into office.' "Now, nobodys got any doubt. Hes for coal.
In recent decades, the Democratic Partys aggressive push toward clean energy led to the installation of more renewable energy and the conversion of coal-fired plants to be fueled by cheaper and cleaner-burning natural gas. In 2016, Trump seized on this issue, promising to end what he described as Democratic President Barack Obamas war on coal and to save miners jobs. This resonated with voters in West Virginia, where Trump won a majority in every county in three presidential elections.
However, Trump did not manage to revive the industry during his first term. In West Virginia, which employs the most miners of any state, the number of coal jobs fell from 11,561 at the start of his presidency to 11,418 at the end of 2020, perhaps slowing coals steep decline but not stopping it. Slocum argued that Trump can weaken the federal Environmental Protection Agency and deregulate mining, but he cannot save coal. It's not the EPA, its not Democrats that declared this war on coal, Slocum said. It was capitalism and natural gas. And being honest about the reasons for coals decline is the least we can do for coal-dependent communities instead of lying to them, which the Trump administration is doing. Sometimes people want to believe a lie, because its easier than facing a hard truth.
In 2009, the EPA found that planet-warming greenhouse gases put public health and welfare in danger, a determination that new EPA chief Lee Zeldin has urged Trump to reconsider. Scientists oppose Zeldins push, and Slocum said the endangerment finding and the need to move away from coal dependence is not a theoretical debate. It is a factual, scientific one, albeit one that does not occur within the current Trump administration.
Nevertheless, the culture of coal is deeply ingrained in West Virginia. A miner can be a coal industry worker, but also a sports team mascot, an image emblazoned on the state flag or the name of a breakfast sandwich at Tudors Biscuit World. In the 1950s, more than 130,000 West Virginians worked in the industry, which then had a population of around 2 million. Production peaked in 2008, a year before Johnson was born. But by then, the number of coal workers had dropped to 25,000, mostly due to mechanization.
Heather Clay, who runs West Virginia Coal Festivals beauty pageant and social media, said losing coal jobs often six-figure incomes was especially significant in a state with one of the nations highest poverty rates. Its so much more than what people outside of West Virginia understand, she said. Theyre always saying, Shut down coal, Shut down coal. So you want to shut down our economy? You want to shut down our families? You want to shut down our way of life? And it has, for a lot of people.
Trump and coal industry advocates argue that keeping coal in the U.S. energy portfolio is essential for maintaining the power grid, servicing growing demand from innovations like artificial intelligence centers and keeping America energy-independent. But John Deskins, director of the West Virginia University Bureau of Business and Economic Research, said it would take a significant shift in the underlying economics for it to make financial sense for utilities to build new coal-fired plants. Natural gas is cleaner and cheaper, he said, and its the direction most utilities are moving in. Earlier this year, First Energy announced plans to convert its two remaining coal-fired power plants to natural gas.
Johnson, donning her pageant sash and crown over a black dress and sneakers, treks through the ruins of the abandoned Kay Moor mine. She speaks passionately about the industry's past, but also, occasionally, about what she believes could be a brighter future for coal in West Virginia because of what Trump has done. I think that it will positively impact not just the industry," she said, but people's lives.
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