HOMER CITY, Pennsylvania — A couple of days after the iconic towers of a coal fired power plant were flattened and seemingly all hope was lost after all of the jobs were gone in the rubble, Shawn Steffee, a local labor leader and agent for the International Brotherhood of Boilermakers Local 154 whispered in my ear, “This isn’t the end, this is beginning.”

Steffee wasn’t wrong. A year ago, he stood with his family and neighbors on a hill overlooking the Homer City Generating Station, the community where he grew up gathered around him, and watched the demolition of Pennsylvania’s largest coal-fired power plant shake the ground as Unit 3’s tower collapsed into rubble.