October 6, 2025 - West Virginia Coal Association President Chris Hamilton is undoubtedly one of the leaders most excited about President Donald Trump’s recently announced $625 million investment in the nation’s coal industry.

Trump’s investment will include a $350 million commitment to modernize coal plants with reliable electric power and capacity, a $175 million commitment for projects expected to bring more reliable and less costly energy to rural areas, and a $50 million commitment to wastewater management systems.

Hamilton says he’s confident Trump’s commitment will undo what’s happened over the last four years.

“It all comes at a great time following the last four years and the Biden administration’s efforts to diminish coal’s role in our nation’s energy pie,” Hamilton said on MetroNews Midday.

“This gives a big boost to the mining industry from permitting to revising the whole regulatory program, to upgrading our power-generating facilities to make sure those run harder and longer past their current expiration dates, and also to ensure that the coal supplies — many of which come from right here in West Virginia — continue to supply our nine in-state power facilities for literally decades to come,” he continued.

Hamilton was asked about those in the state that have concerns about how the coal industry affects the environment. He says the plants in West Virginia operate correctly.

“Our in-state power facilities are all fully compliant with every single federal law governing air quality, so the changes that were previously made by the former administration were truly designed to shut those plants down, not just to control particulates or airborne contaminants,” he said. ‘All you’ve got to do is drive by the John Amos plant and you see basically water vapor, and you see steam. These pants have done a magnificent job around the country to basically develop a now zero admission stream from these plants.”

He says the investment provides funding for necessary services, but that’s not to say other sources of energy can’t be used down the road.

“This is all about continuing baseload generation that runs through the night, runs through inclement weather periods and provides that 24/7 power that people depend on, as well as our industrial base,” he said. “That’s not to say that we can’t have solar or we can’t continue to make investment and make some gains with our renewable energy portfolio.”

“It simply recognizes that we want to put all power on equal flooring, no incentives to prompt these other alternative fuels and return to basics. Basics have worked. Basics have provided us with uninterrupted continuous household industrial power here thanks to our coal-fired generators,” he continued. 

As for Energy Efficient West Virginia policy director Emmett Pepper, the main issue is electric bills for West Virginians. He says this commitment won’t be helping the average West Virginia citizen.

“The issue that we have right now in West Virginia is that our rates have more than doubled in the last 15 years, so this isn’t doing anything to help that. It doesn’t seem like our legislature is doing anything to address the issue of our high electric bills and this isn’t going to help that either,” Pepper said.

According to Pepper, the narrative is that a larger commitment to coal will make service more reliable. He says that isn’t the case.

“What we hear a lot of times in this is, ‘This is going to help our reliability.’ No. It’s not going to help our reliability at all,” Pepper said. “We use more coal than anyone else in the country, therefore, you would think that we have the most reliable energy in the world. We don’t. We’re in the top three in the least reliable electricity service.”

Pepper said last week that in the last two years, AEP alone lost $150 million of ratepayers’ money in the state. He says this isn’t sustainable.

“We’re subsidizing all coal-fired power plants, we’re having to pay extra to keep them running. When is it going to end? How much do we have to give to this one industry?” Pepper said.