West Virginia Coal Association Story Archives - West Virginia Public Broadcasting

Coal Advocates Tout Benefits Of Industry To State Lawmakers

Chris Hamilton, president of West Virginia Coal Association thanked legislators for their “pro-coal policies and assistance” aimed at helping the industry over the years.

The Joint Standing Committee on Energy and Manufacturing heard an update on the state’s coal industry Monday.

Chris Hamilton, president of West Virginia Coal Association started out by thanking legislators for their “pro-coal policies and assistance” aimed at helping the industry over the years.

“Most of the bad is coming out of Washington, D.C. Mostly good comes out of West Virginia and the West Virginia Legislature,” Hamilton said. “And that’s been sustained over the past several years, we’re just expressing our appreciation, sincerely, this is our safe haven.”

In 2021 West Virginia was the nation’s second-largest coal producer in the U.S., after Wyoming, accounting for about 14 percent of U.S. coal production. Hamilton said the industry will end 2023 with about 86 million tonnes of coal production.

“We’re up about 5 percent from last year,” he said. “Last year we produced about 84 million tonnes of production, that fits a pretty healthy split.”

The U.S. total for 2022 came in at just under 600 million tons, a 3 percent increase from 2021.

Asked about fossil fuels and climate change, Hamilton shifted the focus to countries like China and India which he said produce more fossil fuel emissions.

“Ironically, as you compare that and talk about global climate change, their contribution is six, seven times greater than what ours is currently within the states,” Hamilton said. “So we point that out – because we don’t think it does good to ratchet down our use of fossil fuel and coal consumption, specifically while it’s being ramped up in other parts of the globe. We’re all one planet here and if one country is ramping up their carbon output as one is ramping down you still have an increase in carbon dioxide.”

According to the U.S. Energy Information Agency, in 2022 China and India combined consumed 67 percent of total global coal production — China 52 percent and India 15 percent. Conversely, China is the world’s largest producer of renewable energy, including the largest producer of hydroelectricity, solar power and wind power in the world.

Hamilton continued to criticize the Biden administration for “stringent” EPA rules aimed at reducing emissions and particulates in coal fired plants.

“They don’t make any bones about it. They are also designed to remove every single remaining coal plant in operation. That’s the objective of these rules. That’s the objective of this president,” Hamilton said.

Since taking office, President Biden has pledged to cut carbon emissions in half by 2030 to address climate change which scientists say is producing long-term shifts in temperatures and weather patterns.

The coal industry has been faced more recently with increased restrictions on insurance coverage, particularly for new projects. The move is seen as a response to pressure from shareholders, governments and environmental groups seeking to limit coal’s contribution to global warming.

It follows similar action by banks to restrict their coal financing activities. In 2022 JP Morgan Chase, Wells Fargo, Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs were placed on the state’s restricted financial institutions list after Treasurer Riley Moore alleged they are engaged in a boycott of fossil fuels.

“The insurance industry seems to be playing many of those same games right now,” Hamilton said. He told the committee that the West Virginia Coal Association just had its corporate insurance policy revoked.

“The renewal letter stated that Chubb insurance, because we have the word coal in our corporate bank they will no longer provide us with insurance,” he said.

Jason Wandling serves as general counsel for the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection’s Division of Mining and Reclamation.

Wandling reviewed 2022 permitting activity offering data representing applications that the agency has received and actions taken from Jan 1, 2022 to Dec. 31, 2022.

“As you can see the numbers are more or less the same. What we have coming in is what we have going out,” he said. “The most important is the incidental boundary revisions (IBRs), the permit revisions themselves and the permit renewals. This is sort of the lifeblood of what coal companies need when they come to the agency to be able to do their work in compliance with the law.”

Wandling said from 2016 until this year they have 85,000 more acres in production than in 2011. He said surface acres permitted in 2022 remained more or less the same as figures released that year.

In 2023 alone, he said an estimated $18 million in coal bond releases are expected to be returned to operators.

Statewide surface mine application data was split up over four years.

“Just about 30 certified applications were submitted to us,” Wandling said. “Since then those numbers have dwindled a little bit both because of the pandemic, because of the change in administrations and regulatory environment emanating from Washington, but it’s still a significant number.”

Executive Director of the Gas and Oil Association of West Virginia Charlie Burd told lawmakers that 73,000 people are currently working in the state’s natural gas and oil industry. He cited 2021 figures, which showed West Virginia as the nation’s fourth-largest natural gas producer, after Texas, Pennsylvania and Louisiana, accounting for about 10 percent of U.S. natural gas production. Tyler County is currently the largest natural gas producing county in West Virginia followed by Marshall and Wetzel counties.

“That’s a lot of folks that rely on fossil fuels as an industry and there’s 1.8 million people that rely on the products that we give them every day,” Burd said. “We give them the ability to pull a switch and have lighting and heating and cooling. I think the National Geographic identified maybe 6,000 products that we use everyday that are the direct result of natural gas and the associated liquids that we produce.”

Burd cited the MarkWest Sherwood Complex reminding lawmakers the largest natural gas processing facility in the U.S is located in Doddridge County, West Virginia.

“That’s millions, hundreds of millions of dollars invested,” he said. “A wealth of dollars when you look at all the investments that we make and you’ve been the catalyst to help us do that.”

Granholm Letter Supports Fast Approvals For Mountain Valley Pipeline

The 300-mile pipeline would transport 2 billion cubic feet a day of natural gas from northern West Virginia to the mid-Atlantic.

A natural gas pipeline under construction in Appalachia got the thumbs up from a Biden administration official.

U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm wrote to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission last week in support of fast approval on any further action on the Mountain Valley Pipeline.

The 300-mile pipeline would transport 2 billion cubic feet a day of natural gas from northern West Virginia to the mid-Atlantic.

It’s currently held up in federal court. The Fourth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has struck down some key permits, though a recent decision from the U.S. Forest Service could enable the pipeline to cross the Jefferson National Forest.

Environmental groups oppose the pipeline because of its impact on rivers and streams, as well as the planet-warming emissions from producing and consuming the fossil fuel.

In her letter, Granholm said the pipeline could play an important role in the clean energy transition as well as support reliability in the electric grid.

“As extreme weather events continue to strain the U.S. energy system, adequate pipeline and transmission capacity is critical to maintaining energy reliability, availability, and security,” she wrote.

The pipeline is a top-ticket item for state leaders, including Gov. Jim Justice, U.S. Sens. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., and Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., and U.S. Rep. Carol Miller, R-W.Va.. In addition to environmental groups, the West Virginia Coal Association opposes the pipeline.

If the pipeline is completed, Duke Energy plans to switch from coal to natural gas at its power plants in North Carolina. Much of the coal they currently use comes from West Virginia.

Mountain Valley Pipeline Gets Approval To Cross Jefferson National Forest

It’s a critical link for the 300-mile pipeline, which is a priority for state leaders but is opposed by environmental groups.

For the third time, the U.S. Forest Service has given a green light for the Mountain Valley Pipeline to cross the Jefferson National Forest near the border between West Virginia and Virginia.

It’s a critical link for the 300-mile pipeline, which is a priority for state leaders but is opposed by environmental groups.

Its opponents have been successful in stalling the pipeline. Earlier this month, a federal appeals court voided the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection’s clean water certification.

Another pipeline opponent: The West Virginia Coal Association. If it is completed, the pipeline would supply natural gas to Duke Energy power plants in North Carolina, at the expense of coal that currently comes from West Virginia.

Efforts by lawmakers, including U.S. Sens. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., and Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., to speed up the permitting process for the pipeline have not advanced.

Coal Industry Opposes Natural Gas Pipeline State Leaders Support

Coal Association President Chris Hamilton said the 300-mile Mountain Valley Pipeline would displace coal-fired electricity generation in North Carolina.

Environmental groups have opposed the completion of the Mountain Valley Pipeline, and they’ve had some success blocking it in court.

They may have an unlikely ally: the West Virginia Coal Association.

Coal Association President Chris Hamilton told Sen. Bill Hamilton, R-Upshur, and a member of the Economic Development Committee, that the association had supported the pipeline in the past.

But Chris Hamilton said the 300-mile natural gas pipeline would displace coal-fired electricity generation at four power plants in North Carolina.

“So you’d be against it now?” Bill Hamilton asked.

“Yes,” Chris Hamilton said.

“Unfortunate, thank you,” Bill Hamilton said.

The committee then approved Senate Bill 188, which would expedite permitting for natural gas projects in West Virginia.

Chris Hamilton encouraged lawmakers to modify the bill with language that gave equal favor to coal and natural gas for electricity generation, but the committee voted down the effort.

The 42-inch diameter pipeline is a priority for state leaders, including U.S. Sens. Joe Manchin and Shelley Moore Capito.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission last year gave the pipeline’s builders a four-year extension to finish the project.

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.”

Coal Comeback? Coal At New Low After Two Years Under Trump

It’s been two years since President Donald Trump took office and began rolling back environmental regulations on the coal industry.

At a November rally in Huntington, West Virginia, the president took credit for a coal comeback in front of a cheering crowd.

“We’ve ended the war on beautiful, clean coal and we’re putting our coal miners back to work,” he said. “That you know better than anybody.”

But federal data about the industry tell a different story.

Mine operators and independent contractors are required to report regular employment information to the Department of Labor’s Mine Safety and Health Administration, or MSHA. Preliminary figures for 2018 show 80,778 people were employed by mine operators and contractors. That’s a record low, and about a thousand fewer than were employed by coal in the last year of the Obama administration.

Nationwide, coal plant retirements neared a record high, and overall coal production dropped to the lowest level in nearly 40 years, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, a non-partisan government agency that tracks energy trends.

In the Ohio Valley, things looked much the same. In 2018 two prominent Ohio Valley utilities announced a spate of coal power plant closures, federal data show the region lost 150 industry jobs, and Westmoreland Coal, which has a substantial presence in Ohio, declared bankruptcy.

However strong exports of one type of coal continued to support jobs for those who provide metallurgical coal, which is used to make steel. That boosted employment in West Virginia, where the president’s supporters say he is keeping his promise to revive the industry. Elsewhere, others aren’t convinced and are looking for ways to fill the void left by coal’s decline.

Environmental Rollbacks

The Trump administration has leaned heavily on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to try to boost the region’s coal industry. In March, 2017, Trump signed an executive order that kicked off an in-depth review of a series of environmental regulations. Since then, the administration has proposed a series of regulatory rollbacks aimed at helping struggling coal plants and operators.

In August, the EPA proposed a replacement for the Clean Power Plan, an Obama-era regulation that aimed to cut greenhouse gas emissions from power plants by one-third over the coming decades in an effort to stem the effects of climate change.

The Trump EPA has also moved to roll back existing regulations that govern the storage of toxic coal ash. In December, the agency proposed a rule revision that would allow coal plants to emit more carbon dioxide per megawatt-hour of electricity generated by scrapping a requirement that plant operators install expensive technology that reduces emissions. The agency in December also proposed weakening a regulation that limits mercury and other toxic emissions from coal power plants.

The Trump administration last year was also embroiled in an ongoing attempt to bail out struggling coal-fired power plants, which has since stalled.

But many industry analysts believe Trump’s looser environmental rules have not helped the industry.

“So we had some pretty significant regulatory rollbacks in 2018,” said Trevor Houser, a coal analyst at the independent research company Rhodium Group. “And yet, 2018 was a record year in terms of coal plant retirements.” [Story continues below map]

Houser said there is also little indication any utility in the country is planning on building a new coal-fired power plant, even under the current, more relaxed regulatory environment.

Last month, S&P Global Market Intelligence reported Longview Power LLC, which operates one of the newest and most efficient coal-fired power plants in the U.S. just outside of Morgantown, West Virginia, is seeking investment to shift some generation from coal to natural gas and solar. Energy Secretary Rick Perry visited the power plant in the summer of 2017 to tout the benefits of coal in a competitive energy market.

Across the Ohio Valley, utilities announced more coal power plant closures in 2018. After Ohio-based FirstEnergy Solutions declared bankruptcy, it announced it would close two coal-fired power plants, one in Pennsylvania and one in Ohio. Another of its plants in West Virginia will close by 2022. Another major utility, American Electric Power, announced it was moving up the closure date for some units in its Conesville plant in Ohio to 2019.

A report by the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis, an energy think tank, found cost is the biggest force in coal’s decline. Renewables and gas-fired generation continue to provide a cheaper and more flexible alternative.

The Met Demand

With more power plant closing there are fewer places to sell thermal coal, which is burned to make electricity, and that has a major impacts coal producers in the region.

“If you look at the share of where the coal was headed, the domestic utility market for West Virginia coal continues to decline,” said Jason Bostic with the West Virginia Coal Association. “And that’s extremely concerning.”

Nationwide and as well as in the Ohio Valley the amount of coal mined dropped to the lowest level in nearly 40 years. Coal exports, however, were up, driven largely by international demand for metallurgical, or met coal, by Asian countries.

Kudzu grows near a coal preparation plant in eastern Kentucky.

“There’s the kind of continual disconnect between the poor fate of the thermal coal market and a little bit more resilient met coal market,” Houser said.

To meet higher met coal demand, some mines in West Virginia and Virginia have reopened. Federal data from MSHA show West Virginia mines added a little over 500 jobs in 2018.

Tom McLoughlin trains coal miners in southwestern Virginia, where some met coal mines have ramped up production. He said he’s been busy since Trump took office.

“As soon as Trump got elected It was like somebody taking the finger out of the dam,” he said. “There was all kinds of activity including especially the training, and it’s held up fairly well since.”

But even in West Virginia, where things have looked slightly better for the industry, there were also some high-profile mine closures. A mine in Wyoming County shut its doors in October, putting about 400 miners out of work.

There are a lot of indications that the international demand for met coal, especially by China, is cooling off.

“In 2019 we have some pretty troubling signs about the outlook for the Chinese economy this coming year and that could take the wind out of the sails of the metallurgical coal market pretty quickly,” said Houser with the Rhodium Group.

Temporary Bump?

It’s possible that West Virginia’s bounce in production could be a brief one. Elsewhere around the Ohio Valley coal employment has been stagnant, at best. Ohio mines added just 16 jobs last year, and Kentucky lost almost 400 jobs, according to MSHA data.

Retired Kentucky miner Larry Miller said it’s not surprising the data show the industry has not bounced back. He added that he didn’t have a lot of faith in Trump’s ability to revive the industry in the first place.

“I don’t think it’s sustainable,” he said. “The EPA relaxing of the rules might help some, but I don’t think it’s the main driver for the job loss.”

Miller worked for more than two decades underground and said he made a good living. In his own backyard he said he’s seeing first-hand that coal is often no longer an economic source for electricity. For example, near his slice of western Kentucky a group of utilities is installing an 800-acre solar farm, further evidence, he said, of coal’s declining importance.

“It’s not going to be gone but it’s not going to be the economic engine that it once was,” Miller said. “And I made a good living in coal for a long time and I liked it, so I don’t take pleasure in saying that.”

TVA’s new gas fired facility, with the older coal units in background.

Recently, the EIA adjusted downward its coal forecast. It says coal production is expected to hit a record low in 2019. Appalachia will see its overall coal production drop from 201.5 million tons in 2018 to 170.1 million tons in 2020, according to the EIA forecast.

Limited Retraining

That doesn’t bode well for miners. Houser, with the Rhodium Group, said while the Trump administration doubled down to boost coal, it has not offered any additional aid for job retraining.

“The past few budget proposals from the Trump administration have actually reduced the amount of support for retraining and economic diversification and coal retraining in coal country,” he said.

Clemmy Allen has been retraining coal miners for more than 30 years for the United Mine Workers of America.

Since 2012, the UMWA’s Career Training Centers in Appalachia has relied on a Department of Labor grant, which provides $5000 in tuition assistance and a $20 daily stipend to West Virginia miners who have been laid off or lost their jobs. He said thousands of miners have taken advantage of the program, but acknowledged it’s also limited.

“It’s very, very difficult for for a person just to … just shut down and go into training and not have money to, you know, meet their monthly obligations,” he said.

Allen said in previous years the center had more federal grants to retrain miners in other states, and he says there are thousands of miners who have lost their jobs over the years who have since found work, but would like to be retrained to do something else.

“We never have enough resources, never,” he added.

Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated where Tom McLoughlin is based. He is based in southwestern Virginia, not northern Virginia.