President Obama wants to spend a considerable amount of money retraining workers in coal-mining towns, encouraging some lawmakers working on legislation to revamp coal country. Yet critics see hypocrisy as those communities suffer under Obama administration regulations.
Many coal communities, particularly in Appalachia, have been suffering from recession in recent years. A combination of increased regulation during Obama’s presidency and the natural gas boom has driven down demand for coal and resulted in thousands of miners losing their jobs.
The Power-plus Plan, introduced by Obama in early 2015, is a federal program that aims to help coal-dependent communities economically diversify and retrain workers for other industries.
In his most recent budget, Obama proposed the Department of Interior spend $1 billion over the next five years on the plan. That plan would take money from the Abandoned Mine Land Trust Fund, administered by the agency, and spend it on cleaning up old mine land sites and polluted waters.
The administration also says it wants to spend “unprecedented” amounts of money on healthcare and retirement security for mine workers.
The White House also proposes investment in carbon capture technology in recognition that “coal will continue to be a critical part of the energy mix in this country and around the world.”
That gives Rep. Peter Welch, D-Vt., hope that Congress might pass legislation helping coal workers. Welch is working with Rep. David McKinley, R-W.Va., on legislation that would build off the administration’s plans to help coal-dependent communities.
The Healthy Employee Loss Prevention Act, introduced in October, would create a program to teach coal workers who lose their jobs new skills while providing them some financial assistance. It would create a 23-person commission, with 20 members appointed by bipartisan congressional leadership, to identify which communities need the most help and then direct resources to those areas to invest in job training, unemployment insurance and in local government programs.
Welch said the bill was inspired by a trip he took with McKinley to West Virginia last year when the two went into a coal mine and then ate with coal workers. Welch, a liberal who wants to take action on climate change and promotes clean energy, was struck by the sophistication of the mines and the pride coal miners take in their work.
“They want to work and these folks are very, very solid workers,” he said. “These guys kept the lights on in this country, they kept industry going. They do dangerous, difficult jobs with a cheerful step and they can do a lot of other things.”
Still, it’s hard to get coal miners excited about the possibility of doing other work, he said. Working in the mines is hard, but it pays well and allows them to provide for their families.
Economic diversification for the towns might be an uphill slog, but Welch says it needs to happen.
“The reality is these good folks who have been keeping the lights on for hundreds of years are losing their jobs,” he said.
The administration’s push to help the towns has been cheered by some in coal country.
Diana Madson, executive director of the Mountain Pact, a group that works with Western communities dealing with environmental and fiscal stress, said the new investment would help restore prosperity to towns that have been dependent on coal.
“As we look at reforms to the federal coal program, it is essential that we also look at the local communities and economies that have been dependent on coal development and help them transition to new economies,” she said.
Critics of the administration say the plan is just cynical politics.
Obama has been accused of trying to kill coal production in pursuit of cementing his climate change legacy. Most scientists believe the burning of fossil fuels, such as coal, is driving manmade global warming.
The Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Interior have handed down regulations during Obama’s tenure that have limited coal production, such as Interior’s Stream Protection Rule and the EPA’s Mercury and Air Toxics Standards.
The Clean Power Plan, Obama’s signature environmental regulation that is now blocked by a Supreme Court order while a legal challenge is heard, places emissions reductions on new and existing coal plants. That regulation is seen as one of the most serious threats to coal’s future in the U.S.
Luke Popovich, vice president at the National Mining Association, said Obama’s plans to help coal towns, in light of all the regulations, is “brazen political hypocrisy.”
“The president’s policies have deliberately tried to destroy the coal industry, which is the economic linchpin of the very communities he is now trying to put on welfare,” Popovich said.
The administration may try to argue that market forces such as the demand for natural gas is what is killing the coal industry, but that’s a misdirection away from the impact of regulations, Popovich said. He said gas prices will rebound and coal once again will become a cheaper option.
“You would have the freedom to swing coal back into the energy mix,” Popovich said. “But, when you’re shutting down [coal-fired power] plants with environmental standards, those plants can’t come back and you lose that diversity.”
Welch rejected the idea that environmental standards are doing more to harm the industry than market forces and the advancement of technology.
He said his trip down into the mines showed him the advanced technology that is being used to mine, and those machines have resulted in thousands of jobs being cut.
As more consumers use natural gas, which is considered cleaner than coal, those factors combined will irrevocably harm the coal workers, and the government needs to help, he said.
“Whatever the EPA’s responsibility is, and a lot of folks there do point the finger [at the EPA], mechanization and market forces are the bigger factor.”
