Coal Story Archives - West Virginia Public Broadcasting

Wind, Solar Leave Coal In The Dust So Far This Year, Data Show

Renewables outpaced coal in the first five months of the year, growing a gap that began last year.

By the end of May last year, wind and solar barely edged out coal in the nation’s electricity mix.

The gap has grown wider this year, according to data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

Wind and solar combined generated 288 million megawatt hours from January to May, 10 percent more than coal.

For the first five months of 2023, wind and solar generated 253 million megawatt hours, 1.5 percent more than coal.

Wind alone surpassed coal in March and April. It’s typical for coal generation to drop during those months because plant maintenance tends to occur between winter and summer.

The federal agency forecasts that wind and solar generation will surpass coal for all of 2024.

For now, natural gas remains the nation’s dominant fuel for electricity. Renewables, meanwhile, especially solar, are growing rapidly.

The EIA forecasts a 75 percent increase in solar generation from 2023 to 2025 and an 11 percent increase in wind generation. It forecasts coal generation to decline 18 percent.

The Appalachian Forager And Crosswinds, Inside Appalachia

The woman behind the popular TikTok account “Appalachian Forager” makes jam from wild pawpaws … and jewelry from coyote teeth. We also talk with the hosts of a new podcast that looks at coal dust exposure beyond the mines, affecting people far downstream from Appalachia. You’ll hear these stories and more this week, Inside Appalachia.

This week, the woman behind the popular TikTok account “Appalachian Forager” makes jam from wild pawpaws … and jewelry from coyote teeth.

We also talk with the hosts of a new podcast that looks at coal dust exposure beyond the mines, affecting people far downstream from Appalachia.

And, in some places, slavery continued in different forms well after the end of the Civil War. A new marker in Western North Carolina acknowledges that history and commemorates a disaster that killed 19 Black prisoners.

You’ll hear these stories and more this week, Inside Appalachia.

In This Episode:

Appalachian Forager Found In TikTok
Let’s Talking About Taxidermy
Downstream Dangers Of Coal Dust
Remembering The Continuation Of Slavery
The Last Of The Ramps

Appalachian Forager Found In TikTok

The Appalachian Forager brings native know-how to TikTok with a side of silly.

*Photo Credit: Amanda Page/West Virginia Public Broadcasting*

Gathering wild foods has long been a way to put food on the table in the Appalachian mountains. In recent years, the practice has gone digital, with online communities devoted to foraging in the wild, springing up like wild mushrooms after a spring rain.

One woman in eastern Kentucky is sharing what she knows (and some humor) with the TikTok generation through an account called “Appalachian Forager.”

Folkways Reporter Amanda Page has the story.

Let’s Talking About Taxidermy

Taxidermist Amy Ritchie is sharing the love of her craft with other enthusiasts.

*Photo Credit: Margaret McLeod Leef/West Virginia Public Broadcasting*

A lot of folks are fascinated by the results of taxidermy. The preservation and mounting of dead animals has been around since at least the middle ages.

In 2023, Folkways Reporter Margaret McLeod Leef visited a modern practitioner in Yadkin County, North Carolina.

Downstream Dangers Of Coal Dust

The Dominion terminal and coal storage facility in Newport News, Virginia, where residents in nearby neighborhoods have complained of blowing coal dust.

*Photo Credit: Adrian Wood*

Appalachia plays an important part in the world economy. The region produces less coal than it used to — but it’s still a hot commodity for steel makers. That demand creates problems for people living near the terminals where coal is moved from train to ship, to then be carried overseas. Residents of Norfolk and Newport News, Virginia, say airborne coal dust from export terminals is coating their cars and houses — and getting into their lungs.

A new podcast called Crosswinds links that fight on the coast to communities in West Virginia.

Host Mason Adams spoke with spoke with Crosswinds producer Adrian Wood, and Lathaniel Kirts, a pastor and activist in one of the affected communities.

Remembering The Continuation Of Slavery

No known photographs remain of the convict labor crew that the Cowee 19 worked on, but historians say this crew working on the Western North Carolina Railroad in the late 1800s was similar.

*Photo Credit: Hunter Library Special Collections, Western Carolina University*

North Carolina is unveiling a roadside historical marker that officially acknowledges the 1882 Cowee Tunnel disaster. Nineteen prisoners were drowned when their boat capsized in a river west of Asheville.

The marker also acknowledges a form of de facto slavery, used for decades following the Civil War. We heard from Jay Price at WUNC.

The Last Of The Ramps

Toward the end of the season, ramp leaves begin to shrivel and die off.

*Photo Credit: Bill Lynch/West Virginia Public Broadcasting*

Ramp season is winding down in central Appalachia, but before the last ramp was picked, Producer Bill Lynch followed a friend out for a late harvest at her secret ramp patch.

——

Our theme music is by Matt Jackfert. Other music this week was provided by Tyler Childers, Sierra Ferrell, Bob Thompson, Dinosaur Burps and Tim Bing.

Bill Lynch is our producer. Zander Aloi is our associate producer. Our executive producer is Eric Douglas. Kelley Libby is our editor. Our audio mixer is Patrick Stephens. We had help this week from folkways editor Jennifer Goren.

You can send us an email: InsideAppalachia@wvpublic.org.

You can find us on Instagram, Threads and Twitter @InAppalachia. Or here on Facebook.

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Inside Appalachia is a production of West Virginia Public Broadcasting.

PSC Chair: EPA Rules Would Threaten W.Va. Power Plant Upgrades

PSC Chair Charlotte Lane said U.S. Environmental Protection Agency rules would jeopardize hundreds of millions of dollars of investments in the state’s coal fleet.

The chair of the West Virginia Public Service Commission (PSC) has joined the effort to block new federal power plant rules.

PSC Chair Charlotte Lane said U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) rules would jeopardize hundreds of millions of dollars of investments in the state’s coal fleet.

In 2021, the PSC approved $448 million in upgrades to three Appalachian Power plants to comply with EPA regulations in place at the time. The company’s electricity customers are paying the cost, and the upgrades were supposed to keep the plants operating through 2040.

EPA’s new rules will require them to capture 90 percent of their carbon dioxide or shut down.

In a brief to the U.S. District Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C., Lane wrote that carbon capture would be too expensive and the plants would shut down several years earlier than planned.

That would make the investments the PSC approved in 2021 “unnecessary white elephants burdening the ratepayers of West Virginia,” Lane wrote.

In an unsigned order Friday, the D.C. Circuit denied an application for an administrative stay on the power plant rules by Republican states, including West Virginia.

Appalachian Power is an underwriter of West Virginia Public Broadcasting.

1st W.Va. Miner Is Killed On The Job This Year In Wyoming County

Virgil Paynter, of Lynco, was fatally injured while operating an excavator at the CM Energy Operations surface mine, Gov. Jim Justice said Thursday.

A coal miner was killed on the job in Wyoming County Thursday morning.

Virgil Paynter, of Lynco, was fatally injured while operating an excavator at the CM Energy Operations surface mine, Gov. Jim Justice said Thursday.

Paynter is the first coal miner to die on the job in West Virginia this year. Only one other mine fatality this year was recorded by the Mine Safety and Health Administration, in Pennsylvania.

According to MSHA, the lowest number of fatalities on record in coal mines – five – occurred in 2020. A decline in coal production related to the COVID-19 pandemic was a likely factor.

Eleven coal miners were killed in 2021 and 2022 as production rebounded. Nine were killed in 2023.

According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, U.S. coal production year to date is down 19.3 percent from 2023.

Mine safety has improved, but the number of miners has also declined, according to MSHA data.

A century ago, miners died by the thousands every year. As recently as the 1960s, hundreds died every year. The last time more than 100 miners perished in any given year was 1984, when the industry employed more than 200,000. Employment has fallen under 100,000 every year since 2015.

Attorney General Sues EPA Over New Power Plant Rules

West Virginia and Indiana are leading a lawsuit, along with 25 other states, against the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to stop new rules on existing coal and new natural gas-fired power plants.

The suit was filed in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.

The EPA’s final rules were released at the end of April. Coal plants will have to ultimately cut their carbon dioxide emissions by 90 percent or shut down. New gas plants will have to also capture 90 percent of their CO2.

The EPA is working on a separate rule to cut carbon emissions from existing gas plants. About 40 percent of U.S. electricity comes from gas.

The new rules include updated limits on mercury and other toxic pollutants from plants that burn coal. They also include changes to how power plants dispose of the wastewater that results from treating coal emissions to remove toxic pollutants.

Finally, the rules require the cleanup of coal ash disposal sites that were closed prior to 2015.

West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey said the rule ignored the ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court in West Virginia v. EPA, which said the EPA could not use the Clean Air Act to force coal-fired power plants into retirement.

“This rule strips the states of important discretion while using technologies that don’t work in the real world — this administration packaged this rule with several other rules aimed at destroying traditional energy providers,” Morrisey said. “We are confident we will once again prevail in court against this rogue agency.”

When those rules were announced, EPA Administrator Michael Regan said, “By developing these standards in a clear, transparent, inclusive manner, EPA is cutting pollution while ensuring that power companies can make smart investments and continue to deliver reliable electricity for all Americans.”

The power plant rules align with changes that have been happening in the sector in the past decade. Electric utilities have moved sharply away from coal, largely switching to natural gas, and now, renewables and batteries.

“This year, the United States is projected to build more new electric generation capacity than we have in two decades — and 96 percent of that will be clean,” said White House Climate Adviser Ali Zaidi.

A separate statement from the Natural Resources Defense Council was more blunt.

“While polluters and their allies always complain that whatever technology EPA is requiring is not ready for prime time, in this case their argument is even more ridiculous: In addition to the technology being available, it’s also being supported with billions of dollars of tax incentives via the Inflation Reduction Act.

“Instead of fighting a losing legal battle, power plant owners and states should be locking up their lawyers and turning loose their engineers,” said David Doniger, a senior attorney at the organization.

Morrisey said in a statement that he would also file a motion to stay the new rule as soon as possible.

Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia and Wyoming joined the West Virginia- and Indiana-led lawsuit.

Hope Gas Asks PSC To Block Pipeline From Supplying Pleasants Plant

Quantum Pleasants is talking to a pipeline developer, Icon New Energy Pipeline, about an agreement to supply the plant with the volume of gas it needs and at a lower cost.

Hope Gas has asked the Public Service Commission to block another supplier from providing gas to the Pleasants Power Station.

The Pleasants Power Station was sold last year to a California Company, Omnis Technologies, that plans to produce graphene and graphite and run the power plant on the hydrogen byproduct.

That will require a lot of natural gas: 100 million cubic feet a year by the end of 2025. The plant, now Quantum Pleasants, told the PSC in a Wednesday filing that Hope Gas cannot supply that volume.

Instead, Quantum Pleasants is talking to a pipeline developer, Icon New Energy Pipeline, about an agreement to supply the plant with the volume of gas it needs and at a lower cost than Hope.

Hope wants the PSC to review whether the arrangement would violate state law because the plant is an existing customer.

Omnis said the law doesn’t apply because the company has never been a customer of Hope. It asked the commission to dismiss Hope’s request.

In its own filing Wednesday, Icon said the PSC does not have jurisdiction over the company except for pipeline safety. It told the commission it supported the Omnis motion to dismiss.

The potential closure of the Pleasants Power Station, which dates to 1979, caused considerable outcry from lawmakers.

The plant shut down, briefly, last June but was reactivated when Omnis agreed to buy the plant from Energy Harbor.

State lawmakers had passed a resolution urging Mon Power to purchase the plant. The sale to Omnis made it moot.