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The Coal Industry in Virginia May Have Hit Rock Bottom

In the last decade, Virginia’s coal industry has gone into a freefall.

Since the recession hit a decade ago, the number of jobs in Virginia’s coal industry has been cut in half. From about six thousand in 2008 to about three thousand today.

Terry Rephann at the University of Virginia says several factors are contributing to the decline.

“One is competition from the shale gas industry. It’s much cheaper to employ that rather than thermal coal. You also, over the past ten years or so, have had increasing regulations — air quality and greenhouse gas regulations.”

Those increasing regulations are on hold now because of the Trump administration. But Rephann says they’re are likely to come back eventually. And Albert Alwang at Virginia Tech says the coal industry doesn’t work in a vacuum.

“This is tied to other commodities as well. For instance steel. Coal is a big input in a lot of steelmaking. So as steel and coal demand has decreased, the jobs have also decreased.”

Some good news for Virginia's coal industry, though, is that it may have hit rock bottom. The mines that have survived the decline are more efficient, and they are producing for a market that is not expected to decline quite as fast as it has in the last decade.

This report, provided by Virginia Public Radio, was made possible with support from the Virginia Education Association.