How Coal Country Can Adapt to the Energy Transition

The document examines the decline of the U.S. coal industry, driven by cheaper alternative energy and rising extraction costs, and the resulting workforce crisis. It evaluates various federal legislative proposals and existing programs aimed at economic diversification, such as the RECLAIM Act and EDA grants. The brief highlights opportunities for transition in renewable energy, energy efficiency, environmental restoration, broadband deployment, and entrepreneurship, emphasizing that a 'just transition' requires a holistic, community-driven approach rather than a simple shift from one single industry to another.

• The decline of the U.S. coal industry is primarily driven by the proliferation of cheaper alternative energy sources and increasing extraction costs, rather than environmental regulations. Coal production peaked in 2008 at 1,171.5 million short tons and fell to 706 million short tons in 2019.
• The energy transition is geographically uneven; wind and solar deployment has been concentrated in the Midwest and Southwest, while coal-dependent regions in Appalachia and the West face higher barriers to renewable adoption due to resource availability and entrenched market entry.
• Federal legislative proposals to support coal communities include the Marshall Plan for Coal Country Act, which would expand Medicare and provide free higher education to former workers, and the RECLAIM Act, which proposed disbursing $1 billion from the Abandoned Mine Reclamation Fund for economic revitalization between 2020 and 2024.
• Environmental remediation of coal sites offers significant employment potential. For example, coal ash cleanup at the Colstrip plant in Montana is estimated to create 66.4 direct jobs per year over 40 years, and Duke Energy's cleanup in North Carolina created over 3,700 jobs between 2013 and 2019.
• Broadband deployment is identified as a critical economic driver for rural coal communities. Projects like KentuckyWired, a 3,350-mile fiber optic network, have utilized local labor, with 80 percent of construction work-hours performed by Kentucky residents as of March 2019.
• Effective transition strategies must prioritize economic diversification over replacing one single industry with another, ensuring that workers can maintain their quality of life given the historically high wages of coal industry jobs.

APA

Environmental and Energy Study Institute (2020). How Coal Country Can Adapt to the Energy Transition. https://www.eesi.org/files/IssueBrief_Coal-Workforce_1120.pdf

Chicago

Environmental and Energy Study Institute. How Coal Country Can Adapt to the Energy Transition. 2020. https://www.eesi.org/files/IssueBrief_Coal-Workforce_1120.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Environmental and Energy Study Institute |title=How Coal Country Can Adapt to the Energy Transition |date=November 2020 |url=https://www.eesi.org/files/IssueBrief_Coal-Workforce_1120.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{environmentalandenergystudyinstitute2020how, author = {{Environmental and Energy Study Institute}}, title = {{How Coal Country Can Adapt to the Energy Transition}}, institution = {Environmental and Energy Study Institute}, year = {2020}, month = nov, url = {https://www.eesi.org/files/IssueBrief_Coal-Workforce_1120.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }