Energy Transitions in Coal Country

Workforce Wednesdays
Find out more about the briefings in this series below:
Sept 2	Preparing High Schoolers for Green Careers
Sept 9	A New Spin on Conservation Corps
Sept 16	Energy Transitions in Coal Country
Sept 23	Growing Green Industry and Innovation: Mass Timber
Sept 30	Low-Carbon Small Business and Post-COVID Recovery
Overview of the Workforce Wednesdays series

Coal-producing communities around the country have been experiencing economic turmoil from mine layoffs or closures due to precipitous declines in the demand for coal. These communities are among the most vulnerable to further transitions away from carbon-intensive energy sources and face particular challenges retraining their coal workforce.

Senator Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.), who introduced the Marshall Plan for Coal Country Act in July, provided introductory remarks. Mark Haggerty, an economist specializing in energy transitions at Headwaters Economics, discussed the broad workforce and employment challenges coal communities are facing while navigating a low-carbon future. Kelli Roemer, a researcher and PhD candidate at Montana State University, discussed case studies of Western towns that have already begun transitioning, highlighting local action and state and federal support that has helped. Charlene Johnson, the Executive Director of Plenty Doors CDC, a community development corporation run by Crow tribal members in Crow Agency, Montana, and John Dole, Tribal Elder, Apsáalooke (Crow), discussed the unique challenges tribes face from mine closures and the transition to low-carbon energy.

 

Supplemental EESI materials:

• A Proposal for a “Marshall Plan” to Ease Energy Transition for Coal-Dependent Communities

 

HIGHLIGHTS

 

Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.)

• Coal families have helped power the United States for generations by working in coal mines and have now watched over a dozen coal plants go bankrupt since 2017. These coal communities also feel targeted by climate rhetoric. Current climate policies need to be inclusive of these families.
• Senator Duckworth has introduced the Marshall Plan for Coal Country Act (S.4306), which would increase funding for research and investment in carbon sequestration, and re-establish tax credits to spur new forms of energy development. The Act would support businesses, entrepreneurs, and families in coal country.

 

Mark Haggerty, Economist, Headwater Economics

• U.S. national energy policy guided regional coordination and planning to build coal-fired power plants, transmission lines, and mining capacity in the West. This led to the exploitation of rural areas to deliver power to metropolitan markets.
• National policy and strong regional collaboration, sometimes with Native American nations, aided in the creation of the world’s largest electricity grid in less than two decades.
• The rise of coal in the West in 1970 meant the loss of 100,000 coal mining jobs across Appalachia.
• The states set the terms of how coal development happened in the West; the National Governors Association coordinated to establish a social contract between the coal industry and its employees.
• Western states imposed high severance taxes; established permanent funds to ensure a legacy from coal development; implemented strong bonding and reclamation requirements; and ensured high wages and benefits for laborers, lifting some into the middle class.
• In the early 1990s, energy deregulation had powerful consequences:
  • Unlike the mass coordination shown in the ‘70s across the West to power the country, energy transition policy in 1990 fragmented organizational efforts across Western states, leaving coal communities vulnerable.
  • The economic divergence of urban and rural economies was amplified. Job creation now tends to take place in metropolitan areas, further isolating rural regions.
  • Revenue from coal, federal revenue sharing, royalties, severances, and property taxes distort the local economy of coal communities, building dependencies. Economic growth and diversification outside of the coal economy create budget gaps, deepening fiscal crises.
• Today, there is an immediate need for a national policy task force; a federal corporation to deliver dedicated financing sources for transitions out of coal; and equitable outcomes and forward-looking planning at the local level. These actions are needed to provide basic infrastructure in rural communities and help them diversify through federal resources and local government support.

 

Kelli Roemer, Researcher and Ph.D. candidate, Resources and Communities Research Group, Montana State University

• The closure of coal plants and mines creates acute impacts on remote isolated communities compared to their metropolitan counterparts. There is a need to plan for the loss of employment and tax revenue, adequate decommissioning, and environmental remediation in these rural communities.
• Often, transitioning coal communities confront a complex ownership regime. Because owners live in different states, with different regulatory processes and portfolio standards, they plan for different coal plant end-of-life processes. This adds uncertainty to closure dates, negotiating timelines, and the securement of transition funds for coal communities that have limited local capacity and resources.
• Planning at the local level is limited. The strength of planning depends on the capacity and resources of each community. Small communities in the West need assistance mitigating economic and fiscal impacts, negotiating closure dates, securing transition funds, as well as short- and long-term assistance for community planning and dislocated workers.
• In the last 10 years, energy policy has become highly politicized and marked with an uptick in federal executive orders.
• The absence of a coordinated national policy exacerbates uncertainty and sends conflicting messages. Without comprehensive legislation, states are pushed to create their own. Two approaches emerge:
  • Washington, Colorado, and New Mexico are working to accelerate the energy transition and clarify the pace of transition (i.e., setting plant closure dates).
  • Montana and Wyoming are trying to slow the energy transition by bolstering the coal industry and aim to postpone coal plant retirements.
• Current transition assistance programs established during the Obama administration include the Partnerships for Opportunity and Workforce and Economic Revitalization (POWER) initiative, Assistance to Coal Communities (ACC) Program, and support from the Department of Labor. To qualify, communities must show economic distress due to changes in the coal industry.
• These transition assistance programs insufficiently address the needs of remote, isolated communities, do not support short- or long-term planning, and set resource timelines incongruent with community needs.
• Policy recommendations include developing legislation that coordinates the energy transition while expanding the scope and scale of assistance programs and establishing an independent entity to lead on coal transition.

 

Charlene Johnson, Executive Director, Plenty Doors CDC; Apsaalooke member

John Doyle, Tribal Elder, Apsaalooke Nation

• Charlene Johnson and John Doyle live on the Crow reservation located in southeastern Montana. They are both members of the Apsaalooke Tribe [Apsaalooke is the autonym for Crow].
• When coal energy declined due to natural gas and mines closed, 1,000 tribe members lost their jobs. Many people in Apsaalooke County are coal miners or workers who rely indirectly on coal mining for jobs. Many people are homeless due to the dwindling coal economy.
• The communities also face a number of additional challenges. The tribe is only able to survive by leasing and selling its lands. The lack of alternative economic opportunities creates a highly stressful environment where, if you do not work in the mines, there are only 80 other jobs on the reservation.
  • There is only one grocery store on the reservation because the second burned down. Many homes house 2-3 families. In one town, raw sewage poured into a ditch due to septic tank and water issues. Plenty Doors and other organizations contributed funds to fix these issues.
  • Plenty Doors works on capacity-building on the Apsaalooke reservation. They provide workforce development resources to community members.
• Apsaalooke county is dealing with several infrastructure challenges; coal plant closures and COVID-19 have only exacerbated those problems.
• Actions identified by the community to improve the situation include:
  • Invest in education by supporting Little Big Horn College and Little Big Horn College library, where tribal archives are stored. Tribal colleges receive only a fraction of what other colleges receive in state and federal support.
  • Recognize the role of non-profit organizations in working with tribal governments to identify solutions.
  • Reinforce technology and workforce training programs that include skills like plumbing, HVAC services, and apprenticeships.

 

Q&A

 

What do you want people to know about coal communities that they would not know? What are common misconceptions?

• Haggerty: The perception that communities that are specialized in a single industry are ideologically positioned or backward thinking. In reality, their options and incentives are limited. By giving them more opportunities and tools to work with, there can be more opportunities. There are significant opportunities if we can find ways to overcome some of the revenue dependence and structural barriers that exist. Do not think of these communities as homogenous, get to know them.
• Doyle: We have not just been sitting idly. The tribe has looked towards developing alternative energy like wind and hydropower. But the big problem is, without power transmission lines to transport energy to the market, energy generation will not be profitable.

 

How is Little Big Horn College funded, especially in terms of federal funding?

• Johnson: I believe that they receive the same type of funding that other universities in the state receive, including Pell Grants.
• Doyle: They do get funding from the Bureau of Indian Affairs. That is based on eligible students, however, so when the student population is down, so is the revenue for the college.

 

Should wastewater infrastructure and other similar basic services be addressed first to help coal-affected communities?

• Haggerty: One of the things consistent across rural places is the systemic underinvestment in basic services. The crumbling infrastructure and inability of rural places to provide basic services is not only an equity and human rights issue, but it is a major barrier to any further workforce development and economic opportunity.
• Johnson: We had an opportunity to work with an epidemiologist who works in developing countries. He came to work with the Crow tribe during the COVID-19 outbreak. He has indicated that our condition is similar to developing countries he has worked in. Water is the most basic need to address health. Native Americans have a lower life expectancy than the average American—20 years lower. Having safe water could extend our lives by 10 years.
• Roemer: What makes communities able to respond to shock is being able to rely on the institutions that hold them together. In my research, I see the thinness of federal resources in terms of human capacity. In the West, one specialist may cover the state of Montana and Wyoming. Agency staff are doing their best to carry out these programs and cover vast regions. They need more support overall to be able to serve their communities better.

 

Highlights compiled by Karen Caycho Molero

 

 

The Environmental and Energy Study Institute (EESI) held a series of online briefings on workforce development and policies and programs that can support a low-carbon recovery from the COVID-19 economic crisis. Speakers discussed major challenges faced in each area and solutions providing economic and environmental benefits to communities across the country.