Supporting the Nation’s Coal Workers and Communities in a Changing Energy Landscape

The document argues that the US shift away from coal has occurred without adequate planning, leaving workers and communities to face economic upheaval. It proposes a support package including wage replacement, educational benefits, and community infrastructure investments, estimating the cost between $33 billion and $83 billion. The brief identifies 462 'coal counties' and highlights the need for environmental remediation of mine and plant legacies to enable future economic diversification.

• The cost of providing comprehensive supports for coal workers facing job losses before retirement is estimated to range from $33 billion over 25 years to $83 billion over 15 years, which is described as a 'tiny fraction' of the $2.5 trillion in capital investments needed by 2030 to reach net-zero emissions by 2050.
• The transition away from coal has been rapid, with coal-fired electricity generation dropping from approximately 50 percent of the US total in 2010 to about 20 percent in 2020, resulting in approximately 90 gigawatts of coal retirements between 2009 and 2019.
• The analysis identified 462 'coal counties' in the US based on production, employment, or plant retirements since 2015. Among these, 28 counties are considered most at risk, meeting at least six of ten vulnerability criteria; Navajo County, Arizona, is the most at-risk nationally, meeting nine of the ten criteria.
• Proposed transitional supports for dislocated workers include five-year comprehensive wage and benefit replacement, educational benefits for workers and their children, job placement services, and mental health counseling.
• Environmental legacies of the coal industry pose significant barriers to economic recovery, including the projected $15 billion debt of the Black Lung Disability Trust Fund by 2050 and the fact that upwards of 90 percent of coal ash ponds are leaking.

APA

Anair, D., & Mahmassani, A. (2021). Supporting the Nation’s Coal Workers and Communities in a Changing Energy Landscape. Union of Concerned Scientists. https://www.ucs.org/sites/default/files/2021-05/Supporting-the-Nation%27s-Coal-Workers-%28report%29.pdf

Chicago

Anair, Don, and Amine Mahmassani. Supporting the Nation’s Coal Workers and Communities in a Changing Energy Landscape. Union of Concerned Scientists, 2021. https://www.ucs.org/sites/default/files/2021-05/Supporting-the-Nation%27s-Coal-Workers-%28report%29.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Anair |first1=Don |last2=Mahmassani |first2=Amine |title=Supporting the Nation’s Coal Workers and Communities in a Changing Energy Landscape |publisher=Union of Concerned Scientists |date=April 2021 |url=https://www.ucs.org/sites/default/files/2021-05/Supporting-the-Nation%27s-Coal-Workers-%28report%29.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{anair2021supporting, author = {Anair, Don and Mahmassani, Amine}, title = {{Supporting the Nation’s Coal Workers and Communities in a Changing Energy Landscape}}, institution = {Union of Concerned Scientists}, year = {2021}, month = apr, url = {https://www.ucs.org/sites/default/files/2021-05/Supporting-the-Nation%27s-Coal-Workers-%28report%29.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }