Photo: Public Domain West Virginia. (2021). Good Photos. Retrieved from https://www.goodfreephotos.com/united-states/west-virginia/

Long reliance on coal industries for employment in rural West Virginia can impact workers’ health and safety. As workers continue to labor for coal companies, especially in mines, it creates adverse health risks. This is not sustainable for the health and safety of workers. Coal mining carries inherent risks of mine collapse or failure; however, an often-unnoticed impact of this work is the long-term health risks. Coal miners are often diagnosed with long-term pulmonary conditions or lung cancer. This creates a health epidemic in rural areas in West Virginia, which already struggle with access to adequate health care and high poverty rates. Despite the growing rates of diseases such as black-lung disease, coal lobbying continues to fight against tax reform that would benefit miners.⁸

Photo: Public Domain West Virginia. (2021). Good Photos. Retrieved from https://www.goodfreephotos.com/united-states/west-virginia/

Coal mining can have detrimental effects on the environment. Surface mines can release chemicals into the environment and release methane gas. According to the US Energy Information Administration, 11% of total US methane emissions were attributed to coal mining.⁹ Another method of coal extraction is called mountaintop removal mining (MTR). MTR is almost exclusively practiced in the American Appalachian region and West Virginia is one state where it happens most often. MTR consists of using explosives to remove the top layers of rock and dirt above the coal. Such a process requires the deforestation, and thus potential loss of habitat, of the mining area. Moreover, sometimes the unneeded rock is stored in a neighboring valley, which damages the ecosystem in the valleys. The process of exploding tops of mountains also scars the Appalachian landscape, the site of some of the oldest mountains in the world.

Photo: Public Domain West Virginia. (2021). Good Photos. Retrieved from https://www.goodfreephotos.com/united-states/west-virginia/

Apart from the political and social difficulties of transitioning from coal industries, workers possess technical and soft skills, but often do not have the vocational or technological skills to switch to other employment industries.¹⁰ Technology advances rapidly and coal mining is a highly specialized occupation with little overlap with other industries. Also, new technology can serve to make workers obsolete in the coal industry without further technological or mechanical training. This creates a system wherein- with a lack of higher education- workers would be unable to find sustainable employment after leaving coal industries. This does little to serve the surrounding communities, especially as coal and other fossil fuel industries are beginning to be replaced with green energy. It also serves to create further dependency on these coal industries. Without adequate access to educational attainment or vocational training programs, it could make it more difficult to find sustainable employment.