Gerald Lucas, 69, is a former coal miner and federal mine inspector who now gives public tours underground at the Beckley, W.Va., Exhibition Coal Mine, a working mine that ceased operations in 1953. He describes it as a fun job that allows him to share his decades of experience with visitors.
Lucas’s career change is becoming more common among West Virginians as the rural state of 1.8 million moves toward a new economy in which coal is no longer king. The state, which had a poverty rate of 16% in 2019, has long felt the effects of coal’s decline.
West Virginia is the second-largest producer of coal in the U.S., behind Wyoming, but historically it has employed the lion’s share of industry workers. Although the number of coal miners nationwide has dwindled to the tens of thousands, in West Virginia they can earn an annual salary of up to about $90,000, money that has helped drive local economies. Even as coal production has shrunk and natural gas has accelerated, the industry in the state is still potent. Coal generated $14 billion in total economic activity in 2019, according to a March study from the West Virginia University College of Business and Economics.
“For the last century we’ve done all the heavy jobs, the dirty jobs,” says Manchin. “We’ve helped build this country by the energy we’ve produced.”
States With Highest Share of GDP From Mining, Quarrying, and Oil and Gas Extraction in 2020
Data: Bureau of Economic Analysis
Acknowledging the shift from fossil fuels, the United Mine Workers of America recently rolled out a road map to “enhance opportunities for miners, their families, and their communities.” It calls for support for coal-fired carbon capture and storage, to keep existing jobs; tax incentives for renewable-energy manufacturing, to create new ones; wage replacement and training for dislocated miners; and other measures.
Capito says Biden’s clean-energy plans pose the risk of West Virginians losing out and that she’s determined not to let constituents “get dropped on their heads again.” She worries it will be a repeat of President Obama’s Clean Power Plan, which would have led to “basically just an abrupt closure” of fossil fuel activities “with a pretty callous regard as to what’s happened to people.”
Although Biden won only 30% of votes in deep-red West Virginia, his jobs plan holds the potential for investment in infrastructure and manufacturing, especially now that the Senate has lifted its ban on earmarks. West Virginia has a notable history in that respect: The name of the late Senator Robert Byrd, the long-serving Democrat and Appropriations Committee chairman, is affixed to numerous bridges, roads, and buildings around the state.
“When he took office, we had 4 miles of interstate—then we had one of the best systems in the nation because of him,” says Bill Bissett, president and chief executive officer of the Huntington Regional Chamber of Commerce and former head of the Kentucky Coal Association. “The reaction to federal aid with infrastructure is not always disliked here.”
Beckley, population 16,000, is the largest city in southern West Virginia and exemplifies the transition the state is trying to make by boosting manufacturing, tourism, and other industries. The Exhibition Coal Mine has a museum with traditional mining tools, as well as a restored coal camp and church on site. Nearby is Tamarack Marketplace, a light-filled Appalachian arts center and cafe that attracts half a million visitors a year.