Last night I watched W. Kamau Bell’s United Shades of America, in which he explored Appalachia and the issues facing it. The episode really changed my perspective on coal country and the people in it. The vast majority of these people aren’t uneducated hicks that are backward and racist. We probably also thought they were just invested in coal and didn’t believe in climate change. These are stereotypes that most of us probably held. And I can’t blame you because this is the picture we get of Appalachia most of the time while the good is mostly ignored.
On the campaign trail, President Trump said again and again that he’d bring coal back. Just last week he again repeated the claims and earlier in the month talked about the “big opening” of Acosta Deep Mine in Pennsylvania. That mine began construction in September and plans employ only 70 people. And coal mining has added only 1,300 jobs since December, but this is a small dent in comparison to a number of coal miners that have lost their jobs. This administration has been rife with false or simply misleading statements about coal mining ever since Trump’s inauguration in January. The President needs to stop making unrealistic promises to these people and actually start helping them.
Coal is dead and that is the simple fact of the matter. We can remove regulations on the coal industry all we like. In doing it’d be a mere patch to a huge issue and that issue is that coal is going to eventually run out. If we remove regulations now coal might have a relative “boom” and then it’ll go bust all over again. Except for this time, there won’t be a fallback as there is now. There will be no coal and when there is no coal there will be no miners and no money. It will be an economic crisis for hundreds of thousands of people in Appalachia.
And if you don’t believe coal is dead, you are very wrong. Since 2005, coal has gone from providing 50% of the electricity to now only 33%. In 2008 coal production peaked at 1,172 million short tons and today nearly over 400 short tons less is produced. Coal is becoming less critical to energy production and less is being produced. It is and has been, abundantly clear that it is on its way out.
On top of this, in 2016 alone, 25% of the coal industry declared Chapter 11 bankruptcy. In fact, Peabody Energy and Arch Coal, the first and second largest coal producers, respectively, declared bankruptcy. And with it, 60,000 coal miner jobs have been lost since 2011. Now imagine the state of the coal industry in 10 years, even 5 years, it will soon be completely gone.
Not only will the “classic” idea of Appalachia be affected but Pennsylvania and mid-West states like Illinois and Wyoming too. These also aren’t places that many think of when you say coal country. Most often Kentucky and West Virginia come to mind, but this is a coast to coast, apolitical issue.
But the issues don’t begin and end economically. Appalachian states like Kentucky, Tennessee, West Virginia, North Carolina, and Pennsylvania have seen an explosion in overdoses. This has come on top of a wave in drug addiction on the East Coast.
This surge in addiction and overdoses stems directly from the economic meltdown these places have experienced in recent decades. Coal miners began using opioids as a way to combat mine related injuries and pain. Later once jobs left and there was no money people turned to drugs to forget the situation they were in. We need to put more effort into helping Appalachia economically and end this epidemic before it claims any more lives.
But it isn’t all doom and gloom for coal country. These economies can be saved by economic diversification. And the drug epidemic can end by providing jobs and addiction treatment. If not, it will be all doom and gloom.
In Bell’s United Shades of America, it shows a coffeehouse called “Art Factory”, tourist attractions like rock climbing, as well as other things showing the increasing diversity in these places. While these are small scale it is a start for future growth.
If we capitalized on the beauty of the Blue Ridge mountains it could prove to be a major part of the area’s economy in the future. However, where we could really start making a change is by building factories that could produce the parts for wind turbines, solar panels, electric cars, etc. This would bring back jobs and fight global warming. In addition, the materials needed for these industries would cause an increase in mining jobs as well as other industries.
Another way to jump start the area is an infrastructure program. This helps two ways. First off, it’d provide jobs in building or repairing roads, bridges, highways, dams, etc. And second, the improved infrastructure would make these regions more accessible, boosting it’s appeal to business and tourism.
In doing so the rampant drug problem could be curtailed as people would see that there is hope and a better future for themselves. But it still wouldn’t be enough. Government programs and initiatives will be needed to, at least try, stop drugs from coming into the country and to help addicts instead of punishing them, like we’ve done to no help for decades.
The people of coal country want the same things as us the rest of their fellow Americans do. They want to have a job, a house, and family and friends. Most aren’t dimwitted hillbillies. They believe in climate change and want to protect the environment for their children and future generations. And most know that coal isn’t the future as it will run out, probably within this century. Sure they might be Republicans and probably voted for Trump but I believe they really are good people. We need to be proactive in helping them, economically and socially, and start offering real solutions instead of campaign slogans, like Trump has done all this time before there is a literal disaster on our hands.