FAYETTEVILLE, W.Va. (AP) — The winner of this year’s West Virginia Coal Festival teen beauty pageant walks through the remnants of a community abandoned decades ago. She imagines what the old coal tipples and processing plants might look like if they were revived.
Ava Johnson, 16, knows that coal in West Virginia will never be what it once was. But as she strolls along the overgrown railroad tracks near the abandoned Kay Moor mine in New River Gorge National Park, collecting spikes for her personal collection, she hears people expressing hope about the future of the coal industry. For generations, coal has provided good-paying jobs in the state.
“You can’t truly appreciate being a West Virginian unless you understand that people risk their lives every day to improve ours,” Johnson said.
Much of this renewed optimism is linked to recent actions by President Donald Trump. Earlier this month, Trump signed new executive orders aimed at revitalizing coal, a fossil fuel widely criticized for its environmental impact. These orders allow for mining on federal lands and ease some emissions regulations designed to limit coal’s contribution to global warming.
“All those plants that have been closed are going to be opened, if they’re modern enough,” Trump said at the signing ceremony. “Or they’ll be torn down and brand-new ones will be built.”
The news was met with enthusiasm in West Virginia, where residents like Johnson feel the coal industry is often misunderstood, and they are frustrated by being overlooked by the rest of the country. However, some experts are skeptical about Trump’s ability to fulfill his promises to the state’s coal-dependent communities.
Tyson Slocum, an energy and climate policy professor at the University of Maryland and director of the nonprofit Public Citizen’s energy program, believes Trump is pushing an unrealistic narrative. He argues that market forces have already shifted away from coal in ways that cannot be undone. This view is shared by many economists.
“There’s nothing Trump can do that will have a real impact on the domestic coal market,” Slocum said. “Energy and steel markets have fundamentally changed. Instead of promising a return to coal, a more effective approach would be to focus on adapting to new realities and addressing the concerns of coal communities.”
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