Charleston, W.VA. – President Donald Trump administration has proposed several changes that would affect us coal industry.
Trump issued executive orders this month to Allow mining in federal lands. He has used its emergency authority to allow some oldest electric power plants to establish retirement. It continues to produce electricity To meet the growing demand in the midst of the growth of data centers, artificial intelligence and electric cars.
The Republican president also granted almost 70 oldest electric coal centrals A two -year exemption of federal requirements to reduce emissions of toxic chemicals.
The Trump government efficiency team, led by Elon Musk, Made plans earlier this year to finish leases of 34 Offices of Health and Safety Administration of US Mines. In 19 states.
The coal industry once provided more than half of American electricity production. But it has been in strong decline for decades, since the operators left the business and public services installed more renewable energy and the coal plants converted to be fed by cheaper and cleaner natural gas.
US coal production It went to one billion tons (907,000 metric tons) in 2014 and fell to 578 million tons (524 million metric tons) by 2023, the last year available, according to the administration of energy information of the United States.
Coal use At the national level it reached its maximum point in the 1920s when there were around 900,000 miners. It was at approximately 350,000 in 1950 and has constantly decreased since 1980. After the coronavirus pandemic, employment was recovered from 2022 to 2023, increasing 4.2% to 45,476. West Virginia used most miners with 14,000, followed by Kentucky with 5,000. Around half of the 560 coal mines in the country are in West Virginia (165) and Kentucky (112). Despite having only 15 mines, Wyoming was the state of carbon with greater production due to the most accessible mechanization and coal.
Mining deaths In the last four decades They have fallen significantly. There have been 11 or less deaths in each of the last five years, according to MSHA.
MSHA is responsible for enforcing mine security laws. It is required to inspect each underground mine quarterly and each surface mine twice a year. The cuts proposed by the so -called Efficiency Department of the Musk government would require that MSHA inspectors travel further to reach a mine, and that could mean less exhaustive inspections, said Jack Spadaro, a mines security researcher and environmental specialist who worked for that agency.
According to him Doge websiteMSHA leases are expected to end to save $ 18 million. It is not clear if the positions of the inspectors and other works of these offices would move to other facilities.
Seven of the MSHA offices established for the closure are in Kentucky and four are in Pennsylvania. Western Virginia is among the states with two specific offices. They are also being considered for the closure of the recovery and application facilities of surface mining in Lexington, Kentucky and Tulsa, Oklahoma, reducing the national footprint of an agency created during the Carter administration to restore the land damaged by strips mining and claim abandoned and damaged mines land.
A recent review of the data publicly available by the Citizens Law Center of the Apalaches indicates that almost 17,000 health and safety inspections were carried out from early 2024 to February 2025 by MSHA personnel in the facilities in the cutting block.
Industry defenders have long sustained that there are other uses for coal, some of which use cleaner technology.
Central natural resources based in Pennsylvania, based in Pennsylvania, are working to develop a process using western virginia coal to create a synthetic material that can be used as an anode for lithium -ion batteries, reducing the dependence of the United States of countries such as China, according to Matthew Mackowiak, director of Government Affairs of the company.
Recently, Core acquired a company that converts coal into carbon foam that produces composite tools used to make nostrils and airplane wings for the United States defense industry.
“Whether there is more coal generation in the future, obviously that is something to talk about in the future,” Mackowiak said. “But at least, we must focus on keeping our current coal fleet.”
