 
|
Signature Sponsor
April 30, 2025 - Robert Cash, a third-generation coal miner, prays each morning with his fellow miners before going underground for a long shift.
In the coalfields of Appalachian West Virginia, everyone hopes the mine will keep giving up its coal to pay rare six-figure salaries. But their prayers ask that they return safely to the surface.
While fatal accidents have fallen over the years, cases of black lung disease resurged in the last two decades. It has laid low colleagues and neighbors. Cash, 55, fears it will arrive for him one day, too.
Cash is among those here hoping that President Trump’s promises to revive the coal industry’s fortunes after years of decline from cheaper natural gas, rising mining costs and environmental regulation will pan out. But in recent weeks, those hopes have been complicated by worries that Trump’s federal cost-cutting is simultaneously weakening mine safety.
Earlier this month, Trump’s federal workforce cuts hit the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), hobbling the work of a black lung surveillance and prevention program, according to union and health workers.
In addition, the administration delayed a new rule set to go into effect April 14 that would cut in half exposure limits of silica dust, a driver of resurgent black lung that now affects one in five coal miners in Appalachia. And the administration has been reviewing ending the leases of more than 30 Mine Safety and Health Administration offices.
“At the end of the day, the most valuable thing in the mines is the miners,” Cash told USA TODAY.
Those concerns have produced a growing pushback in West Virginia, with Republican Sen. Shelley Moore Capito and others calling on the Trump administration to reconsider changes. One coal miner in danger of developing black lung has filed a federal suit challenging the layoffs.
“That would make anybody think about their decision to go in the mines,” said Josh Roberts, head of health and safety for the United Mine Workers of America, which recently joined a legal battle over the silica rule to keep it from falling by the wayside.
In what health workers hope could be a sign that those voices are being heard, several dozen laid-off NIOSH staff including some working on the Coal Workers’ Health Surveillance Program got phone calls on April 28 asking them to return from administrative leave but without signaling a change in their planned termination in June, a union leader told USA TODAY on April 29.
Capito said on social media April 29 that some NIOSH functions for coal miner safety were “slated to resume with some select staff" but that "my understanding is that this is temporary, so my focus will continue to be on working with @HHSGov on permanently restoring these functions and personnel in the most efficient and effective manner.“
Trump administration officials said that NIOSH would join the Administration for a Healthy America and that critical programs would remain intact.
“There is no greater ally to America’s coal miners than President Trump, who immediately unleashed American energy upon taking office and signed an Executive Order to expand production of critical minerals. He is using every lever of his executive power to carry out his energy dominance agenda while keeping our hardworking coal miners safe,” Anna Kelly, White House deputy press secretary, said in a statement.
In West Virginia, where 7 in 10 voters supported Trump last year and coal mines employed about 14,000 workers in 2023, the delay in new silica standards and worries about mine safety programs are not the only concerns creating caution and uncertainty around a promised revival.
West Virginia produces 28% of U.S. coal exports to other countries, according to the federal Energy Information Agency. Chris Hamilton, head of the West Virginia Coal Association, said the state produces about half of U.S metallurgical coal exported to China, which is now a key target of Trump’s trade war. Others noted that despite Trump’s attempt to ease environmental regulations, competition remains from less expensive natural gas and renewables.
But Cash said Trump’s attempt to extend the lives of coal-fired power plants and encourage more U.S.-based manufacturing, such as steelmaking that relies on coal, could eventually boost local mining jobs -- whose incomes are hard to replace in his corner of Appalachia.
If, that is, they can do it safely.
Federal cuts lead to coal-safety concerns
In early April, Noemi Hall’s pinging phone woke her up at 5:30 a.m. with texts from colleagues at the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health who had gotten reduction-in-force notices.
She jumped into her car and drove to their Morgantown office building, where she worked as an epidemiologist in NIOSH’s Respiratory Health Division, primarily supporting the Coal Workers’ Health Surveillance Program.
Her badge still worked. But she quickly discovered that she, too, got a reduction notice. She packed up what she could and grabbed her diplomas off the wall. She said the cuts have since stymied the program’s work.
Laid-off staffers included those who helped process lung X-rays, critical for miners to obtain black lung benefits or to be relocated to a less dusty work setting, she said. A mobile clinic that travels to remote coal communities to screen workers has been idled.
“I am incredibly worried for the health of these coal miners,” she said.
On April 8, the Mine Safety and Health Administration announced it would pause enforcement set to start April 14 of new, long-sought limits on silica dust exposure, citing the restructuring. The rule has faced a legal challenge from industry groups who say it would be costly.
Cutting programs to prevent black lung and its costly treatments and benefits make little financial sense, said Cathy Tinney-Zara, the union president of the American Federation of Government Employees Local 3430, which represents some of the laid-off workers who organized a rally in Morgantown on April 23.
Meanwhile, Harry Wiley, a West Virginia coal miner, filed a federal lawsuit alleging he is unable to process his mine-transfer rights because of the cuts affecting the NIOSH facility in Morgantown, which union officials estimated to have affected at least 185 union workers.
Cases of black lung, an incurable illness, fell before it began resurging, particularly in Appalachia, nearly two decades ago. It came as more rock was mined to reach ever smaller and more remote coal, mine union officials said. That in turn increased silica dust exposure.
A NIOSH study in 2018 found that 10% of underground coal miners who had worked for at least 25 years had black lung, up from 7% in 2012. In central Appalachia, that figure reached 20%, the highest level recorded in 25 years. That rise included more progressive massive fibrosis, the most severe form of the disease, and more cases among younger miners.
Enforcement of stricter exposure limits, which require more respirators and dust monitors, falls to mine safety inspectors as DOGE considers closing office buildings. The Appalachian Citizens’ Law Center said the offices slated for closure nationwide performed more than 16,000 safety and health inspections between February 2024 and 2025.
Roberts, of the United Mine Workers, said fewer physical locations will only make it harder for inspectors to reach mines in remote parts of Appalachia, where miners often commute for an hour or two each way through remote winding mountain roads.
“We want the coal industry to be successful. We want there to be mining jobs for years to come. But I don't think anybody would want to do that at the cost of health and safety,” he said.
A spokesperson for the Department of Labor said this week it was looking to “identify workable solutions” to keep Mine Safety and Health Administration teams on the ground, continuing their critical mission to prevent death, illness, and injury and promote safe and healthy workplaces for our miners.”
Stanley Stewart knows all too well the importance of safety measures. And the need for strict enforcement.
He was 300 feet underground at the Upper Big Branch mine in West Virginia in 2010 when an explosion caused by excess methane gas and flammable coal dust killed 29 of Stewart’s co-workers. Stewart survived but had to stack the bodies of fellow miners.
It was later found that inspectors had cited the mine for excess coal dust and methane, and the disaster drove stepped-up safety rules and inspections, according to the Associated Press.
Stewart, now retired in Orgas, West Virginia, told USA TODAY that cutting resources for miner safety would endanger workers.
“If you ain’t got them people there to enforce the laws and try to make them behave, then you know, the miners are going to have hell to pay,” he said.
Coal operators hopeful but cautious
On a chilly mid-April morning, workers and leaders from coal and related businesses poured into the convention center in Charleston for the annual Coal Show and symposium amid a new air of hope.
Attendees walked past displays of shining new equipment such as the low-slung “mantrip” that takes miners deep underground. A woman in a “coal queen” sash talked to visitors. Nearby was a sign for a job fair, with tables set up by businesses hoping to ramp up staffing.
Hamilton, president of the West Virginia Coal Association, whose members include coal companies, said he thinks Trump will do more this time to boost coal than he was able in his first term.
Trump’s executive orders, signed April 8, include efforts to extract coal on federal lands, speed mining permits and extend the life of coal-fired power plants. The administration is also seeking to roll back environmental regulations, including exemptions for some coal-fired power plants from rules to curb toxic emissions.
Experts have said that competition from natural gas and renewables likely would dissuade utilities from opening new coal-fired power plants or restoring coal to its former place. Coal now generates less than 20% of U.S. electricity, down from about 50% in 2000, according to the Energy Information Administration.
And Trump’s moves have drawn criticism from environmental groups, who note that burning coal is the most polluting of all fossil fuels and accounts for roughly 40 percent of the world’s industrial carbon dioxide emissions, the main driver of global warming.
But Hamilton said extending the lifetime of existing coal plants could help a state that once shipped coal to 165 coal plants, a figure now down to 35.
“The working miners and their families, they've been going to bed at night and waking up every morning wondering whether they were going to have a job,” he said. “They're seeing signs that maybe this time around, the Trump administration will be able to effectively change and ensure that coal is a bigger part of our nation's energy mix going forward.”
Meanwhile, Hamilton said the tariff battle with China has led some coal operators to stockpile mined coal. It’s unclear if or when those producers will need to find new markets, but Hamilton said he believes demand in other countries could take up the slack.
“There’s concern. There are some markets that are in jeopardy at the current time,” he said earlier in April. “But we think at the end of the day, that's going to be corrected.”
Indeed, despite the uncertainty, many in the once-blue state turned deep red are willing to give Trump time.
Few forget that Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton campaigned in 2016 on cleaner energy and transitioning workers to new industries, saying, “We’re going to put a lot of coal miners and coal companies out of business.”
A changing coal job market
During coal’s better years in the mountains of West Virginia, a miner could spend a career in the same mine, where large seams took decades to extract, Roberts said.
But over time, shrinking coal seams became more expensive to mine, making companies more sensitive to price dips. That meant frequent idling and closures. And on-and-off work.
“I've worked with guys who went straight from high school to retirement at one coal mine. That's just unheard of nowadays,” Roberts said. “Now, if you get five years at a coal mine, you've been there a while.”
Between 2011 and 2022, coal industry employment fell by around 57%, a decline that hit the hardest in Appalachian coal producing states including West Virginia and Kentucky.
Some entered job retraining but few could replace the pay. Some have given up and left the state to find jobs.
“There was a period there when there was a downturn in coal, when a lot of mines shut down and people moved out of state, found other careers, so they either moved on or got to the age they're retired and completely out of the industry now,” said Brian Lacy, United Mine Workers of America District 17 Vice President.
Even with a hoped-for uptick in jobs, he said experienced miners remain difficult for some companies to find. There are now efforts to revive new-miner apprentice programs.
At the Coal Show job fair, employers from several related industries looking for truckers, welders and machinists had set up at tables with pens and applications. On this day, some weren’t yet seeing many applicants.
Keith Lester, a manager from a company that makes mining equipment, said his company was leaning into coal on the expectation that mining would increase. But how long federal coal policies would stay in place remained an ever-present question.
“Sad to say, it all rises with whoever is sitting in Washington in this industry,” he said.
Many would like to see a boost in coal to support the small towns that once survived off the industry but over the years have faced poverty and depopulation. Federal funding now makes up nearly 45% of the state’s revenue, according to a Wallethub analysis.
Stewart, the Upper Big Branch survivor, said he is skeptical the administration’s coal push will ever bring back the days when large coal seams and jobs were seemingly everywhere.
“When I grew up you could hardly find a place to park up in Whitesville. Now it's a ghost town,” he said. “At least in my area, I don't ever see coal ruling again.”
Miners caught between jobs and health
After spending the day in Boone Memorial Hospital in Madison, West Virginia, helping miners with X-rays and breathing tests to qualify for black lung benefits, physician Drew Harris headed just over the Virginia border to Haysi, population 498.
Inside an exam room at Stone Mountain Medical Center, which sees more than 1,600 black lung patients a year, Ralph Colley, 64, sat on a chair with an oxygen line in his nose leading to a tank he carries everywhere. Harris held a stethoscope to his chest.
“You’ve got a lot of black lung,” he told Colley.
Colley spent 37 years in dozens of mines in the region, from shoveling coal to working as a boss. Some mines were so small, he said, it was like working under a table.
As the seams grew narrower over the years, more rock was mined along with the coal, including silica-rich sandstone. He’d come out of the mine with a thick coat of rock dust on his hat.
By 2016, a lack of oxygen in his lungs made it too dangerous to work.
“I was getting lost in the mines, I’d get confused and sit down and try to figure out how to get out. My brain just wouldn’t work,” he said. Nowadays, he said he spends his days inside his house, looking out his window, struggling to sleep or walk.
There’s no cure for black lung, only management. Harris told Colley he needed a lung transplant. He promised to talk to programs at hospitals in other states.
Colley is like most of Harris’ patients: Despite the price they paid for working in coal mines, few regret it. But Colley said safety measures that were hard-won over the decades should not fade away.
That was also on Hall's mind in Morgantown. She said that on the night of April 28, she got a phone call from local management telling her to report to work next week. She isn’t sure what that means yet for her termination, which was set for June after she was placed on administrative leave. “I hope the return to work order is a positive step to full reinstatement of operations for the coal workers’ health surveillance program that is so vital for the health of the nation's coal miners," she said.
Back in Foster, Cash sat on a picnic table outside his home tucked in a valley framed by mountains where spring leaves were budding. It had been several months since his mine, which produced metallurgical coal, was idled by shrinking profits.
He was waiting for a new company mine to open. Tariffs, he said, probably aren’t helping. How the Trump administration’s policies would eventually land – or last – he couldn’t be sure.
He wants to work in mining for another 12 years before he retires. He loves the camaraderie, the family-like closeness of fellow miners. The prayers they say every day.
Uncertainty had always been part of being a coal miner. As soon as he could get back underground, he was ready. |
|