Miner benefit levels are tied to the federal pay scale rather than the cost of living. Therefore, though inflation levels have risen, miners’ black lung benefits have not.
The Appalachian Citizens’ Law Center and Appalachian Voices released a report Wednesday, that shows benefits paid to miners with black lung, and their families, have fallen behind the cost of living and rising inflation.
According to a press release from Appalachian Voices, when the federal black lung benefits program was created in 1969, single miners with zero dependents received $144.50 per month.
The report released today shows that with inflation adjustments that figure today should be $1,204.70. However, miners with zero dependents actually receive $738 per month under current law.
Miner benefit levels are tied to the federal pay scale rather than the cost of living. Therefore, though inflation levels have risen, miners’ black lung benefits have not.
Chelsea Barnes is the legislative director at Appalachian Voices, an environmental organization.
“This report that we’ve released today makes it clear that the status quo is not sustainable for miners with black lung or their families as the cost of food, medicine and rent goes sky high and their benefit levels remain stuck in the past,” Barnes said. “Congress can make a simple fix and disconnect miner benefits from the federal pay scale and tie them to inflation. This is a change that will not break the bank. Instead, it will ensure that coal miners and their families have the basic safety net they deserve to survive.”
The new report finds that at the beginning of 2023, inflation rates hit 8 percent, but benefit levels increased by just 4 percent, leaving many miners and their families to struggle to make up the difference as the price of food, gas and medicine continue to rise.
Rebecca Shelton is the director of policy for Appalachian Citizens’ Law Center and spoke about the struggles miners and their families face without support.
“After sacrificing their health and well-being to power our country, miners and their families struggling with a black lung diagnosis shouldn’t have to pinch pennies to survive,” Shelton said. “But the current law ignores inflation and ignores rising prices, leaving disabled coal miners behind. This report should be a clarion call to Congress that, in their efforts to tackle inflation, they must take urgent action to ensure black lung benefits can truly support the people who have earned and deserve them. Anything less is a failure to support our communities during the ongoing cost of living crisis.”
Environmental organizations, led by local advocacy group Appalachian Voices, have once again asked a federal court to halt construction of the Mountain Valley Pipeline.
In a motion filed Monday in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, the groups asked the court to stop construction of the 303-mile natural gas pipeline, which is more than 90 percent completed, while the federal bench sorts through the legality around two newly reissued federal permits.
The permits, reissued by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in early September, include the Biological Opinion and Incidental Take Statement for the Mountain Valley Pipeline. The permits address concerns around how the project could impact endangered species.
In October 2019, the Fourth Circuit tossed the project’s Biological Opinion and halted the project following a similar lawsuit by environmental groups.
In the new motion, Appalachian Voices argues the agency did not consider all of the appropriate information before reissuing the approvals.
The project, from developer EQT, goes through northwestern West Virginia and southern Virginia. In the Mountain State it crosses Wetzel, Harrison, Doddridge, Lewis, Braxton, Webster, Nicholas, Greenbrier, Fayette, Summers, and Monroe Counties. The project has faced several court challenges in the past two years over state and federal permits on both sides of the border. The multi-billion dollar project would carry 2 billion cubic feet of natural gas from the Marcellus and Utica shale formations to markets on the East Coast.
Presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden’s $2 trillion clean energy plan is drawing praise from organizations that work with coal communities on economic transition, but mixed reactions from union officials and industry groups.
The plan, released Tuesday, would boost investment in clean energy and rebuild infrastructure in order to reach net-zero carbon emissions by 2050.The platform frames decarbonizing the economy as a jobs creator. Of note, the plan calls for a carbon-free power sector by 2035, upgrading 4 million buildings and weather proofing 2 million homes, and boosting investment in zero-emissions transportation.
It also includes environmental justice components and explicitly mentions a commitment to invest in coal country and workers who may be displaced by a shift away from fossil fuels.
“I’m setting a goal to make sure that these frontline and fence line communities, whether in rural places or center cities, receive 40 percent of the benefits from the investment we are making in housing, pollution reduction, and workforce development and transportation,” Biden said during his speech in Wilmington, Delaware, Tuesday.
The plan was met with praise by many of the environmental and community advocacy groups that work with coal communities across the Ohio Valley. Specifically, they lauded the Biden plan for seemingly borrowing from a recently-released policy agenda, the National Economic Transition Platform. It provides a list of suggestions to help coal communities make a transition to a clean energy economy, and was endorsed by more than 80 stakeholders from across the country’s coal-impacted regions.
A survey of some of the plan’s drafters found they were not explicitly consulted by the Biden campaign. But Peter Hille, president of the Mountain Association for Community Economic Development, or MACED, which for more than four decades has worked with communities in eastern Kentucky on economic transition, said many of the platform’s tenets were reflected in the Biden plan.
“I think it’s really important that they’re talking about the frontline and fence line communities and environmentally vulnerable communities because that’s where we’ve really seen the hurt from the transition away from the old economy,” he said. “So, it makes sense to build the new economy in those places.”
Heidi Binko, co-founder and executive director of the Just Transition Fund, praised the “intersectional” approach offered by Biden’s plan.
“It’s in there — from broadband, which is necessary to stimulate economic development, to the creation of good union jobs in the clean energy sector, all the way to investments that he called for in infrastructure like colleges, community colleges and hospitals,” she said. “And the other thing that we’re really excited about is just the recognition that the workers who really built the coal economy get the benefits they’ve earned.”
While wide in its breadth, the plan also drew criticism from some, including the United Mine Workers of America, for not including enough specifics. UMWA Communications Director Phil Smith said in an email that the union consulted with the former vice president’s campaign, but felt their contributions “did not find their way into the Biden plan.”
“We believe it lacks a specific plan to help already hard-hit coal communities deal with the energy transition, much less those that are going to be devastated if this plan comes to fruition,” Smith said.
Some of the UMWA’s policy suggestions include offering tax incentives to lure new manufacturing to coalfield communities and providing funding not just to retrain displaced coal miners, but incentives for opening new businesses.
Biden’s plan does outline some specific proposals such as creating jobs through reclaiming abandoned coal mines, investing in job training and apprenticeship programs, investing in carbon capture technologies and ensuring miners’ receive their pension and healthcare benefits.
The plan also calls for the creation of a Task Force on Coal and Power Plant Communities that would be similar to the initiative formed during the auto industry bankruptcies following the 2008 recession.
Binko, at the Just Transition Fund, said more details are always appreciated, and coal community leaders should be front and center in the development of policy proposals for economic development. However, she noted only one candidate is talking about how to help coal country in this ongoing transition.
“I think a lot of elements in the plan are doable,” she said, “But, we’ve only seen proposals to do this investment in coal communities from one candidate so far.”
During his first term in office, president Donald Trump has prioritized relaxing environmental regulations, including many rollbacks intended to help the coal industry. Competitively priced natural gas and renewable energy have continued to displace coal. Federal data show since 2009, mining employment and coal production have fallen by about 50 percent in the Ohio Valley. Lackluster energy demand driven by the coronavirus pandemic is further depressing the industry.
Chris Hamilton with the West Virginia Coal Association said Biden’s plan to shift the U.S. away from fossil fuels sets a pace that would devastate West Virginia’s coal industry.
“I think the coal industry and most progressive people embrace the fundamental change or the conversion that we see within reasonable limits,” he said. “This call for an outright, almost immediate conversion from fossil fuel production and reliance to renewables, it’s just not feasible.”
Hille with MACED disagrees. He characterized the concern over preserving coal mining jobs and creating a new economy as “not a zero sum game.”
“One doesn’t take away from the other,” he said. “We can respect the history of these places and the legacy of our coal mining communities while we’re also participating actively and benefiting from the new clean energy economy.”
Correction:An earlier version of this story inaccurately quoted Heidi Binko as saying “arguable.” She said “are doable.”
A federal judge has denied a request by coal companies owned by the family of West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice to dismiss a lawsuit over selenium violations at a southern West Virginia coal mine.
The Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition, West Virginia Highlands Conservancy, Appalachian Voices and the Sierra Club in sued Bluestone Coal Corporation in August 2019, using the citizen lawsuit provision of the Clean Water Act.
The groups alleged that the Justice companies were discharging selenium at the Red Fox Surface Mine in McDowell County at levels that violated federal mining permits. Selenium, a chemical element found in coal that bioaccumulates, has been linked to growth deformities and reproductive failure in fish.
According to court documents Bluestone reported 107 violations since July 2018 — 42 violations of its average selenium limits and 65 violations of its maximum selenium limits. The company paid $278,000 in fines. But environmental groups argued the company should be subject to millions more in civil penalties.
Bluestone and its affiliates, including Red Fox’s operator Southern Coal Corporation, disagreed. They urged the court to dismiss the lawsuit, arguing that the Justice coal companies are being monitored by federal environmental regulators under a 2016 agreement.
Between 2009 and 2014, 27 Justice coal companies accumulated more than 23,000 water pollution violations at mines in West Virginia, Virginia, Tennessee, Kentucky and Alabama. The companies reached a settlement deal with the Environmental Protection Agency that included a $900,000 civil penalty and an agreement to implement an estimated $5 million in pollution control measures.
The deal also required the Justice companies to provide quarterly pollution reports to regulators. Selenium was not a pollutant covered under the agreement, court documents note.
Bluestone argued that because of the 2016 agreement with the EPA, also known as a consent decree, environmental groups could not bring a citizen lawsuit against them over the selenium pollution. They argued the lawsuit “would create undue interference” with the federal deal.
In his opinion issued Wednesday, U.S. District Court Judge David Faber disagreed. In his 29-page ruling, he sided with environmental groups and questioned whether the 2016 EPA agreement did enough to prevent the Justice coal companies from polluting.
The company “continues to be in consistent non-compliance with the terms of its selenium permits despite facing these general penalties for violations and repeat violations,” wrote Faber, who sits on the bench of the U.S. District Court in the Southern District of West Virginia.
The consent decree’s penalties, he continued, “have not remove[d] or neutralize[d] the economic incentive to violate” the environmental regulations related to selenium.
A request for comment from Bluestone or its lawyers listed on the court docket was not immediately returned.
Environmental groups are seeking additional penalties for the selenium pollution. In court filings, the groups estimate the maximum civil penalty under the Clean Water Act for Bluestone’s violations could top $160 million.
In an emailed statement, Vivian Stockman, executive director of the Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition praised the court’s decision to allow the case to proceed.
“The opinion underscores why it is so important to maintain fair and impartial courts as an independent branch of government,” she said. “Not even our billionaire governor is above the law and his businesses must be held accountable for polluting our waters.”
Standing on the breezy outlook at Flag Rock Recreation Area, Norton City Manager Fred Ramey is taking in the panoramic view of downtown Norton, Virginia. The brick building-lined streets are framed by the verdant, rolling Appalachian mountains. Jagged, brown scars from mountaintop mining operations can be seen in the distance, reminders of the region’s history of coal production.
“It’s a great overlook of the city, and people really are surprised when they get up here at the view,” he says. “It’s truly beautiful, and it’s unique. It’s something that we have that not everyone else has.”
This view — and Norton’s abundance of nature and outdoor recreation opportunities — are what Ramey and others here are hoping will be the next chapter in the region’s history.
The first chapter was coal.
Norton was named in the 1890s after the president of the Louisville and Nashville Railroad. The community of about 4,000 sits in Wise County, which borders eastern Kentucky. Coal has been mined in these mountains for more than 140 years.
But since 2008, coal production has fallen by about 50 percent in Virginia. The trends look similar across the Ohio Valley. Over the last decade, coal production decreased more than 65 percent in Kentucky and Ohio, and decreased roughly 40 percent in West Virginia.
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Ohio Valley ReSource
“In a certain way, our community has found itself at another intersection due to the loss of coal,” Ramey said. “And that’s when we had to really start thinking differently.”
Norton, like many regional communities, began looking at how to diversify its coal-based economy. One resource it has in abundance is nature.
Recreation Opportunities
The city is located near Jefferson National Forest and Stone Mountain. Its peak, High Knob, is the wettest area in Virginia and the area is rich in biodiversity. For example, more than 20 species of salamander are known to live in the region.
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Ohio Valley ReSource
In the 1970s, Norton began developing the Flag Rock Recreation Area, a 1,000-acre park a few miles from downtown. Norton ramped up those efforts more recently and the park is a central piece of the city’s plan to reorient its economy to outdoor recreation. New campgrounds and hiking trails have been built. A visitor’s center that will be easily accessible from downtown is in the works.
The city has also built eight miles of mountain bike trails, with more in development.
“When you have mountain bikers come to your to your town, they’re going to come out of the woods and come down and frequent your restaurants,” Shayne Fields said. He’s trail coordinator for Norton. “If we get enough trails here then they’re going to come and stay multiple days. So, you’ll have patronage at your restaurants, your hotels, any little shops you have in town.”
Credit Brittany Patterson / Ohio Valley ReSource
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Ohio Valley ReSource
New bike and hiking trails at Flag Rock Recreation Area in Norton, Va.
Fields would know. An avid cyclist himself, he and his friends have traveled around the country in search of good mountain biking.
“Normally, when we go someplace, we come out of the woods hungry,” he said. “And the first thing you want to do is go find some really good fatty food and a craft beer somewhere.”
Fields grew up in Norton. He can remember the heyday of coal and has seen the impact its decline has had on the region. Wise County is losing population. About 23 percent of its residents live under the poverty line and the region is often considered ground zero for the opioid epidemic.
Recreation isn’t a silver bullet, Fields said, but it could be a key part of the solution.
“If we want to get an industry here — something other than the coal industry, you know, since it’s probably not coming back — we’re going to have to provide some kind of environment here that’s going to make those young working people want to stay here,” he said. “If we’ve got a good recreational economy-based setup here, we’ll have venues for people to come and play.”
Transition Challenges
Researchers who study economic transitions in coal-dependent communities say diversification is not easy. Many of these communities are located in rural areas, isolated from cities and lacking their amenities. In some cases, political leaders cling to the idea of coal comeback, which stalls action.
“The biggest problem is the loss of employment, particularly of high wage jobs,” said Mark Haggerty, with the Bozeman, Montana-based nonprofit research group Headwaters Economics. “And just as important is the loss of revenue that supports schools and libraries and local services that keep these communities vibrant and attractive places.”
Haggerty has been studying coal community transitions for a decade and said several communities have had success making the transition from mining to outdoor recreation. He pointed to Gallup, New Mexico, a former hard rock mining community, which has now designated itself “The Adventure Capital of New Mexico.” Due to its proximity to the New River Gorge and world class river rafting, Fayetteville, West Virginia, has boomed in recent years.
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Ohio Valley ReSource
Norton, Virginia has launched a “Get Outside” campaign showcasing its natural resources.
Recreation can be a tool, and a powerful one for coal-dependent communities seeking to diversify their economies, but shouldn’t be the end goal, Haggerty said.
“Recreation is really a means to an end,” he said. “So what a recreation strategy does for you is it makes your community more attractive, and it has to be set within a broader economic development strategy that includes making sure you have broadband connectivity, making sure you have good schools and healthcare in place and other kinds of cultural amenities.”
The cost of doing business in coal-dependent communities can also be higher due to the legacy costs left by the coal industry, said Chelsea Barnes, the new economy program manager for the environmental group, Appalachian Voices.
“There are safety hazards or health hazards, or they’re lands that are just not ready for a new business to come and build,” she said. “And we have to make sure that the land that people are visiting is safe, and the water they’re drinking is safe, before you invite large crowds of people to come and visit.”
Federal Role
Norton City Manager Ramey said the city is clear-eyed about the limitations of its budding outdoor recreation industry. In addition to questions about mine cleanup, some have expressed concerns over the wages of tourism-related jobs — selling hiking gear or serving beer often pays less than the mining jobs of the past.
“We’re not saying that tourism is going to be our answer, but we believe it can be part of the solution,” he said. “For a small community to have this kind of asset, you know, is a phenomenal opportunity for us, and it has to play into the discussion as we discuss our community’s future.”
On the other side of town, Norton is engaged in another economic diversification effort. With a federal Abandoned Mine Land Pilot Program grant, the city is converting a 200-acre, vacant surface coal mine into an industrial park. Ramey said they hope the space will attract manufacturing and technology companies. University of Virginia’s College at Wise is nearby, providing an educated workforce. Once completed, the project is expected to create 63 jobs.
Without federal investment, Ramey said, the city’s efforts to diversify would be greatly hampered.
“Without those types of opportunities, the hole we would be digging ourselves out of would become so much deeper,” he said. “It acts as a lifeline to a certain extent having resources, not just the financial resources, but the people resources that these agencies provide, to come in and help.”
A local legend about a bigfoot-style creature, dubbed the “Woodbooger,” got national exposure.
“No one even knew they had been here,” Ramey said. Soon, tourists in search of the “Woodbooger” were flocking to the area. Norton leaned in. In 2014, the city declared Flag Rock Recreation Area a “Woodbooger Sanctuary.” Local businesses pitched in to buy a larger-than-life Woodbooger statue. The local hardware store downtown does a steady business selling t-shirts with the hairy creature’s likeness.
Credit Brittany Patterson / Ohio Valley ReSource
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Ohio Valley ReSource
The Woodbooger statue in the Flag Rock Recreation Area in Norton, Va.
It’s hard to measure if the region’s nascent efforts to boost tourism are working yet. But Ramey points to lots of anecdotal evidence, including multiple trail races that have sprung up in recent years.
On a recent visit to top of the High Knob Observation Tower, Ramey turns in a slow circle pointing to Virginia’s neighbors. Four states are visible on a clear day from this perch, 4,200 feet in elevation.
“West Virginia would be that way,” he says. “Mount Rogers, the highest point in Virginia, is that way. Tennessee and North Carolina is that direction And of course Kentucky over there.”
Down in the parking lot, Ramey smiles.
“Interesting fact, at Flag Rock, we had two cars there from North Carolina, and at the tower, we have two vehicles here from Florida,” he says. “So, I would say that’s a sign that the tourism efforts are paying off.”
A nonprofit environmental group has released a mapping tool it says shows mountaintop coal mining has been expanding closer to communities in central Appalachia in recent years, with nearly half of the 50 areas most at risk in West Virginia.
Appalachian Voices released the map Tuesday in consultation with SkyTruth, a nonprofit group that uses satellite images to study environmental changes.
The map uses federal geological data, satellite imagery, mine permit databases and an online mapping tool.
It identified 50 communities in 23 counties most at risk from mountaintop mining, including 22 in West Virginia, 18 in eastern Kentucky and 10 in southwest Virginia.
Appalachian Voices says since 1999, surface mining has grown closer to West Virginia communities even as production from those mines has declined.
The 10 communities at greatest risk from mountaintop mining coal operations in Central Appalachia, according to the nonprofit group Appalachian Voices:
