Just Transition Story Archives - West Virginia Public Broadcasting

Book: ‘Appalachian Fall’ Addresses Issues Facing Region

Appalachia has many strengths and faces many challenges. Some of those are addressed in a new book produced by the Ohio Valley ReSource, a public media reporting collaborative made up of reporters from West Virginia, Ohio and Kentucky.

The book is titled “Appalachian Fall: Dispatches from Coal Country on What’s Ailing America.” It is based on the group’s reporting on topics such as the miners’ strike in Harlan County, Kentucky, hemp farming and mountaintop removal.

Eric Douglas spoke with Jeff Young and Brittany Patterson about the book and some of the stories in it.

This interview has been lightly edited for clarity.

Douglas: In the preface to the book, you mentioned the concept that West Virginia, or that central Appalachia, is coal, the mentality that we are coal and there’s nothing else here. Where does that come from?

Young: So, the memory that kept coming back to me from childhood growing up in Wayne County, West Virginia, was watching television and there was an ad that I’m sure a lot of listeners will remember. It showed coal mining as this very heroic undertaking, which it is, in many ways, and there was this swelling chorus. It said, “Coal is West Virginia.” That’s a pretty powerful statement. It’s not like, “Oh, yeah, we’re a big part of it. No, we are West Virginia,” It’s like, what are we if we’re not coal here in West Virginia. There clearly is more to West Virginia than just coal. And coal is clearly a big part of our economy and our history and it’s woven into the fabric of our state’s society. But it’s time that we figure out what we are other than just producing coal for the rest of the country.

Douglas: Brittany, what are some of the most notable parts for you in the book and of your own reporting?

Patterson: Everyone knows that news doesn’t just stop at a state line or a border and I think especially in a region that’s as closely knit together as the Ohio Valley or Appalachia, I think you find a lot of similarities. It’s really awesome to be able to compare projects that might be happening in one state and sort of shed light on that, that folks in other places in the region might be able to use or to learn from

Jeff Young, author of Appalachian Fall and Managing Editor of the Ohio Valley ReSource.

Douglas: Are a lot of the stories that you work on collaborative efforts, or do you just share stories throughout the seven member stations?

Patterson: For the Blackjewel story, Sydney (Boles) had about a 45-minute drive over the mountain to get to the campsite in Harlan County, Kentucky. She was able to spend a lot of time out there which was really invaluable, and she made a lot of really strong connections with people who were spending day and night protesting their lost wages. And I had the ability to get on the phone with the economists and to listen into the bankruptcy hearing calls and to go down to Charleston even and sit in some of those bankruptcy hearing cases together. I think it made a really strong reporting team.

Douglas: Obviously, a lot of the book is on energy and energy issues. Explain to me the concept of a “Just Transition.”

Young: I think for coal dependent communities, it would have to include some elements. It would have to start with a deep respect and acknowledgement for the contributions that that community has made for the nation as a whole. I mean, this is literally the region that powered America for a century. We wouldn’t have defeated fascism; we wouldn’t have had an industrial revolution. We wouldn’t have had the most enviable economy on the globe without coal miners. And now, are we just going to treat them as disposable? That’s fundamentally unfair.

Look at Martin County, Kentucky, for example. We have a chapter that’s based on Martin County’s inability to deliver clean water. They delivered billions of dollars to the rest of the nation in mineral wealth and now they can’t afford to deliver reliable, clean water to their citizens? How do we expect them to turn the corner and build new jobs and find new sources of revenue when they can’t deliver clean drinking water?

Patterson: I think fundamentally there’s a growing number of groups that are really working on this idea, especially here in the region. And I think what we hear is they want to be part of the conversation. First and foremost, they don’t want a prescription of “We’re going to do this and make everything better or different.” It’s listening to those who truly live in the region and understanding what it is that works for their communities.

Douglas: The book is titled “Appalachian Fall.” Is there a message there or what’s the story behind that?

Young: I landed on the title because in researching, especially the economic and health data, I just kept thinking “we’re falling further behind, we’re falling further behind.” And the unfairness of it really comes through. Also, I think with fall, we are playing on the notion of seasonal cycles. And a fall is followed by other seasons and eventually a season of renewal. And I think that is very much a possibility for Appalachia.

“Appalachian Fall: Dispatches from Coal Country on What’s Ailing America” is now available through Simon and Schuster.

The Ohio Valley ReSource is supported by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and West Virginia Public Broadcasting.

This story is part of a series of interviews with authors from, or writing about, Appalachia.

Plan To ‘Reimagine Appalachia’ Touts Jobs, Justice and Sustainability For The Ohio Valley

A coalition of progressive policy and environmental groups has released a “blueprint” that provides a framework for how Ohio Valley communities could reap the benefits of federal action to address climate change and the COVID-19 pandemic.

The plan, titled “Reimagine Appalachia” envisions a future economy for the traditionally extraction-based economies of Kentucky, Ohio, West Virginia and Pennsylvania that builds on the region’s other natural resources, creates well-paying jobs and positions the Ohio Valley at the forefront of addressing climate change.

The framework, which has been endorsed by nearly 60 organizations including Appalachian Voices, the Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition and the National Wildlife Federation, was led in development by the left-leaning Policy Matters Ohio and its sister organizations across the region.

“Our vision creates a federal jobs program that can put people back to work in largely outdoor jobs, while simultaneously helping us to address the climate crisis and the need for racial justice, while also maximizing the creation of good union jobs,” said Amanda Woodrum, a senior researcher with Policy Matters Ohio.

With the help of federal investment, the plan suggests the Ohio Valley could use its natural resources to create new jobs and rebuild the middle class. That could be achieved by modernizing the electric grid, cleaning up abandoned fossil fuel infrastructure such as coal mines and oil and gas wells, and by investing in manufacturing like plastics alternatives.

Angie Rosser, executive director of the conservation group, the West Virginia Rivers Coalition, and one of the members of the blueprint planning committee, said the region’s lush forests could also be a key climate solution, by sucking up climate-warming carbon dioxide. The plan advocates for the revival of the Civilian Conservation Corps, a New Deal-era job creation and conservation program.

“For too long corporations have used our resources for their own profits while damaging our health and environment,” Rosser said. “With Appalachia’s natural assets, we have all the tools to provide great jobs for our people, while doing our part to create a healthier future for our children by addressing the climate crisis.”

Coalition members said they held multiple listening sessions, including with fossil fuel workers in Appalachia, before developing the blueprint, and intend to hold more community engagement events in the future.

“This is a starting point, and ideally, this is a new way to talk about this transition that gets us out of those old habits of thinking, ‘Well, you know, this is policy coming in from the coasts or this is policy that’s just being applied to people in Appalachia,’” said Hannah Halbert, executive director of Policy Matters Ohio. “Instead, we’re trying to create some framework, some structure, some on-ramps for people to have a conversation about policies that might affect them that might make their life better.”

The plan’s release comes on the heels of former vice president and presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden’s climate plan, which embraced the idea of a just economic transition for coal-reliant communities.

Proponents of the “reimagine Appalachia” plan said the policy framework is also timely given that lawmakers in Washington are currently debating a second coronavirus stimulus package and calls for climate action are intensifying.

NOTE: Appalshop, which is affiliated with ReSource member station WMMT in Whitesburg, Kentucky, endorsed the “Reimagine Appalachia” plan. WMMT is editorially independent from Appalshop and no members of WMMT participated in the writing or editing of this story.

Ohio Valley Coal Groups React To Biden’s Clean Energy, Climate Plan

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.”

Advocacy Groups Unveil Plan For A 21st Century Coal-County Economy

Environmental and economic advocacy groups from coal-producing parts of the country unveiled a policy agenda on Monday to help coal-reliant communities make a transition to a more sustainable future.

The plan includes items that have long been on the wish list for groups like Appalachian Voices and the Just Transition Fund, both of which were involved in drafting the plan. Items include creating jobs in coal-mine reclamation and investing federal dollars in infrastructure improvements.

The plan, which drafters are calling the National Economic Transition Platform, focuses on the needs of coal-reliant communities across the country, drawing connections between the challenges faced in West Virginia and Appalachian Kentucky to those faced in the Navajo Nation hundreds of miles away.

“The workers in the communities that gave the most to power our nation in the last century should be among the first to benefit from and to create the new economy that’s emerging in the 21st century,” said Adam Wells, the Regional Director of Community and Economic Development for Appalachian Voices.

Wells said the needs of coal-reliant communities are so high that coordinated federal intervention is necessary. “If we want the communities where we live to continue to be good places to live, there has got to be a disciplined and thoughtful, bottom-up intervention that happens to bring our economy and our social support systems into the 21st century,” Wells said. “And so failure is not an option here.”

Wells and others involved in the plan hope to present the plan to lawmakers and candidates at all levels of government, both to hold them accountable to coal communities and in the hopes that lawmakers would turn the plan into legislation in the coming years.

Just Transition: Amid Climate Debate And Coal’s Decline West Virginia Considers Its Future

On a recent soggy Wednesday evening, dozens of West Virginians packed a conference room inside the Charleston Coliseum and Convention Center to discuss the need for a “just transition” for coal-impacted communities.

As the nation grapples with climate change, the need for a fair transition for workers and communities that depend upon coal jobs and revenue has also gained traction. Nearly every 2020 Democratic presidential hopeful has touted some version of the idea, ranging from the expansive “Green New Deal” championed by Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders to former Vice President Joe Biden’s more modest mix of worker training and direct assistance for coal country.

In West Virginia, discussions are starting to get attention in the state’s capital despite strong political support for the coal industry.

“When you’re hearing a call for a just transition for coal-reliant communities, folks are saying ‘look, starting now and into the future, we’re going to decarbonize the economy,’” said Ann Eisenberg, a law professor at the University of South Carolina. “There will be disproportionate losses imposed on coal-reliant communities. And that’s unfair. So we’re going to offset the losses. And that is where I think this is a good thing. And it’s also tricky.”

Eisenberg was one of a handful of experts who spoke at the event hosted by West Virginia University’s Center for Energy and Sustainable Development, the nonprofit West Virginia Center on Climate Change (an offshoot of conservation group Friends of Blackwater), and the left-leaning West Virginia Center on Budget and Policy.

The speakers facilitated a conversation about what constitutes a “just transition” as well as how West Virginia and other regions that depend on coal could actually get there.

Three groups hosted a just transition discussion on Feb. 5, 2020 in Charleston, WV.

Adele Morris with the Brookings Institution said the first step is to acknowledge the clear data about coal. Even without a comprehensive climate policy, the fuel is already losing ground in the region and across the country. Low natural gas prices and the falling cost of renewable energy have priced many coal plants out of the market.

Federal data show since 2009, mining employment and coal production has fallen by about 50 percent in the Ohio Valley. The energy shift is already underway, Morris said, but without the part that would help communities make the transition.

“We’re in it. We’re in the transition,” said Morris, who is a senior fellow and policy director at the nonpartisan think tank. “And it’s going to get worse before it gets better. But it’s not fair. And that’s what I think should be urgently at the top of the agenda of the policymakers from coal country, and they’re not, in my opinion.”

Legislative Attempt

One lawmaker is making a pitch in West Virginia. State Del. Evan Hansen, a Democrat representing the north-central county of Monongalia, has introduced a bipartisan bill that would create a state Just Transition Office, and a community-led advisory committee that would focus on helping West Virginia communities affected by the decline of coal.

“The primary goal here is to write a just transition plan for the state of West Virginia that would look at ways to funnel funding into these communities and other types of resources into these communities in a manner that’s led by what people in those communities think is best,” Hansen said.

The bill is modeled after similar legislation that passed in Colorado. On Wednesday, the West Virginia version passed out of one of the two committees to which it was referred, but Hansen acknowledges it faces a long road to becoming law with the state’s legislative session more than halfway done.

Still, he believes the appetite is growing among the state’s lawmakers to address coal’s decline.

“I would say privately many legislators of both parties acknowledge that there is a transition going on and that this is one of the most important issues that we need to deal with as a Legislature,” Hansen said.

Not everyone is a fan of the bill, including the West Virginia Coal Association.

“Sounds to me like that they think that it would be much better if it were something other than the coal miners,” said the group’s president Bill Raney. “And that bothers me a whole lot because we got the best coal miners in the world.”

Raney’s group is pushing a bill this legislative session that would require West Virginia coal plants to burn the same amount of coal they did in 2019 in the years ahead, regardless of what makes most economic sense.

Of major note during the discussion was how to pay for a “just transition.”

Today most economic transition work in the region comes from federal programs including the Appalachian Regional Commission and Abandoned Mine Land program funding, which offer grants to coal-affected communities in the millions of dollars range.

Morris has estimated the region will require tens of billions of dollars over the next decade and would require some kind of regulatory leadership from Washington, D.C., preferably a carbon tax. Democratic candidates who have supported the idea have differing ways to fund it, although most rely heavily on investing in clean energy and decarbonizing the economy through a “Green New Deal.”

Some in the region have encouraged lawmakers and candidates looking at these climate policies to engage with residents directly.

That includes Cecil Roberts, head of the United Mine Workers of America. In September, he spoke at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. He expressed concern the type of sweeping change Democratic presidential candidates are promising may be too big of a lift for Congress given its past track record in helping coal country.

“We want our health care saved, and if you can’t do that, and it’s been 10 years, how do you think we’re going to believe that you’re going to be able to give us a just transition from the coal industry to some other employment?” he said.

Kentucky Conversations

Chuck Fluharty, President and CEO of the Rural Policy Research Institute, helped to organize a community-centered, just transition model in eastern Kentucky called Shaping Our Appalachian Region, or SOAR. He said SOAR has shown this type of work is possible, especially if a community-centric approach is embraced. However, it’s not easy.

Kentucky entrepreneurs show their products at the 2019 SOAR Summit.

SOAR’s premise is built upon a collective impact investing model that engaged the public, private and philanthropic sectors.

“The real proof of the pudding is in how broad collective commitment is, and is it there for the money or is it there for the future?” he said. “How much it is about investing and not simply dropping dollars on the table.”

Some politicians hope to engage coalfield communities directly about how to balance implementing climate legislation while protecting workers and investing in communities. Kentucky Democratic state senator and U.S. Senate candidate Charles Booker recently launched a series of town meetings on the subject in the heart of eastern Kentucky coal country.

Even among those who support a just transition, questions remain about how best to do it. Morris said there is little data on what has worked in economic transitions in the past. Her team has looked at the impact of military base closures, for example, but said the analogy isn’t perfect. Worker retraining efforts often have mixed results.

“There’s this policy design challenge of how do you get from the wholesale dollars of the federal government into well designed retail level grants and assistance and so on,” she said. “I’m still struggling with exactly how you do that in a way that gets those resources out, but does it in a way that that gives people comfort that it’s responsibly allocated.”

In a report published last July, Morris and colleagues at the Center on Global Energy Policy at Columbia University quantified just how much of a coal-producing county’s budget came from coal, and how big a hole their budgets might face without coal revenue.

Then the authors turned to the various policy proposals to limit greenhouse gas emissions, which would set a price on each ton of carbon dioxide released to the atmosphere.

Morris said that the revenue generated by such policies could be steered into the type of investments needed and at a scale that would make a just transition more likely.

For example, a carbon tax of $25 per ton would likely raise a trillion dollars in revenue over 10 years, she said.

“And that kind of revenue allows for a very generous support for coal-reliant areas,” Morris said.

UMWA’s Cecil Roberts Talks Climate Change Ahead of 2020 Election

As Democratic 2020 presidential candidates embrace sweeping climate proposals like the Green New Deal to move the U.S. away from fossil fuels, United Mine Workers of America President Cecil Roberts told a crowd of reporters and miners gathered in D.C. that those policies could further harm an already struggling coal industry.

Roberts spoke frankly Wednesday morning at the National Press Club about the struggles coal miners across Appalachia face as the industry contracts. He also talked about the challenges his union has faced in Washington, D.C., to get legislation passed that protects healthcare and pension benefits.

“Everybody wants to get their picture taken with a coal miner that’s running for office. Isn’t that amazing?” Roberts said. “But they don’t want anything to do with us when they get in office.”

Most 2020 Democratric presidential candidates have offered specific policies aimed at helping miners during an energy transition. They include things like creating millions of renewable energy jobs and offering financial assistance to displaced miners.

Roberts is skeptical.

“I just can’t make that work in my mind that somehow, somebody can be president, go to Congress and say, ‘We’re going to manufacture solar panels here. They’ve got to be union jobs, or they can’t exist, and they’ve got to pay what coal miners make,’ ” he said. “Not gonna happen.”

His remarks came hours ahead of a scheduled seven-hour CNN town hall on climate change.

Roberts pointed to Congress’s long history of inaction in passing laws that protect coal miners. The first major coal mining reform bill, the Federal Coal Mine Health and Safety Act of 1969, was passed after the Farmington Mine disaster in 1968 that killed 78 miners. The law has been updated twice, in 1977 and 2006.

He applauded candidates who have reached out to the UMWA about climate change legislation and said most, if not all, candidates who the union approached to visit an underground coal mine have accepted or expressed interest. But he also voiced concern about the limits of governing, especially in Congress.

“We want our pension plan saved. We want our healthcare plan saved,” Roberts said. “And if you can’t do that, and it’s been 10 years, how do you think we’re going to believe that you’re going to be able to give us a just transition from the coal industry to some other employment?”

Roberts added that doesn’t mean he wants the conversation to stop.

“We come today to be part of this conversation, not about people talking about us, but we want to talk with everybody,” he said.

The long-time union leader also said the federal government should invest more in technologies to remove carbon from coal-fired power plants, because while coal plants are closing in the U.S., other countries continue to build them.