Biden group releases first take on ideas to boost coal areas like Eastern Kentucky
The Biden Administration’s first report on boosting the economy in places like Eastern Kentucky hurt by a sharp loss in coal jobs calls for more spending on high-speed internet, environmental clean-up and other efforts to create jobs.
The report did not propose any new pots of money to accomplish those goals.
Rather, it identified more than $37 billion in existing funding that could be used for projects in “energy communities” affected by the job losses. That includes the closing of coal mines and coal-burning power plants.
The economy in Eastern Kentucky and in the state’s western coalfield has suffered because of those losses.
The report identified the 25 places most dependent on coal and coal-plant jobs and said it would prioritize them for federal investment.
Southern West Virginia topped that list, followed by Eastern Kentucky in the second spot, nearby areas of southwestern Virginia at No. 4 and Western Kentucky as the sixth most-dependent region.
Tom Cormons, executive director of Appalachian Voices, said in a statement that the report was “a welcome and critically important response” to efforts to jumpstart the economy in coal regions.
“Communities in Appalachia and other coal regions who powered our country for more than a century have been working for years to restore their environments and revitalize their economies, pressing the federal government to step up with engagement and investment matching the scale of the challenges,” Cormons said.
Appalachian Voices took part last year in developing a platform for federal involvement in helping communities affected by the decline in coal.
President Joe Biden appointed a group in January to help identify and deliver federal resources to “revitalize the economies of coal, oil and gas, and power plant communities.”
The initial job was to identify existing resources, not propose new ones, said Chelsea Barnes, legislative director for Appalachian Voices.
The next steps would include identifying ways to make sure money is getting to energy communities, and to increase funding, Barnes said.
The report issued Friday called for a series of town-hall meetings to begin within three months in places like Eastern Kentucky to hear ideas from residents and officials.
The group also expects to compile a list of projects that could be funded, and is supposed to set up a “one-stop shop” for energy communities seeking access to federal help.
“This report is an important start that indicates the Biden Administration clearly recognizes the need to get input from the people hit hardest by the coal industry’s decline,” Angie Rosser, executive director of the West Virginia Rivers Coalition, said in a statement.
The report cited cleaning up abandoned mine lands as one step that could create jobs while improving the environment.
“We are glad to see abandoned mine land clean-up as a priority in the report,” Rebecca Shelton, director of policy and organizing at the Appalachian Citizens’ Law Center in Whitesburg, said in a statement.
However, Shelton said it is important to identify a solid, long-term source of money for that work.
The proposed RECLAIM Act, which would speed up the release of $1 billion from the Abandoned Mine Land fund for projects in Eastern Kentucky and elsewhere, and reauthorization of the fund, would be good first steps, Shelton said.
The White House news release on the report announced new opportunities to apply for a total of $94.5 million for research on extracting minerals from coal and coal waste, and on carbon capture and storage, which could help coal-fired power plants stay in business and support coal jobs.
Biden has also said infrastructure spending in his $2 trillion American Jobs Plan would help places hit by a downturn in traditional energy sources such as coal and natural gas.
That proposal is far from becoming law, however.
Biden’s approach to revitalizing coal country is in contrast to that of his predecessor, President Donald Trump.
Trump pushed to roll back environmental regulations as a way to boost coal production and jobs to improve the economy in coal areas.
However, several factors aside from environmental rules played a role in coal’s decline, including competition from cheap natural gas and rising use of renewable energy. There were fewer coal jobs in Eastern Kentucky and the nation at the end of Trump’s term than at the beginning.
In Eastern Kentucky, for instance, there were 3,989 coal jobs in early 2017, which had dwindled to 2,232 in the final months of 2020.
The coronavirus pandemic during the last year of Trump’s term hurt employment in many sectors, including coal.
Barnes, with Appalachian Voices, said Biden has laid out a process to boost economic efforts in energy communities, and, unlike Trump’s approach, it acknowledges that coal is not likely to make a significant comeback.
“So I think that’s a huge difference,” she said.
This story was originally published April 23, 2021 at 3:23 PM with the headline "Biden group releases first take on ideas to boost coal areas like Eastern Kentucky."
