UMWA President: We Can Mine More Coal, But Who Will Buy It?

United Mine Workers of America President Cecil Roberts says he’s supportive of efforts to ramp up coal production. That means more jobs and tax revenues for coal-producing states, including his native West Virginia.

But as Roberts pointed out in a phone interview, what’s missing is a marketplace for it. Half of West Virginia’s coal production is exported, but that’s under threat from a Trump administration trade proposal.

Domestically, coal has declined to 15% of electric power generation. There are few signs that utilities are about to reverse their long decommitment from coal.

“In order to double the production of coal, you have to have a place for it to go. That seems to be the first hurdle here, where are we going to sell this coal? And who’s going to buy it?” 

“There’s places around the world that are still using coal, where we’re taking advantage of that. We’re about to lose that possibility here, as opposed to having a marketplace where we can survive in a manner that we have been we’re going to lose that if we don’t fix that. That’s number one.” 

Roberts says bringing back domestic steel production would increase demand for metallurgical coal. Nucor is building a steel plant in Mason County, though it will be powered by electricity, and at least some of that electricity will be generated by renewables.

“Number two, we have to have a marketplace here in United States. If it’s going to be a domestic marketplace, then we have to have a steel industry. We’re going to mine more met coal and sell it in the United States. We can mine all the met coal that you could possibly mine. That’s got to go somewhere. Somebody’s got to buy it.” 

Roberts has announced he’s retiring from the UMWA in October.