How Coal Shaped West Virginia and the World: From the Industrial Revolution to the AI Boom
The coal industry was, at its height, central to the prosperity and growth of both the United States and West Virginia. However, growth in each locale came from a different end of the coal industry.
While West Virginia itself profited from the extraction of coal to be sold in domestic and foreign markets, the rest of the country, as well as many parts of the broader world, prospered from using coal as a thermal source to create the steel that built the railroad systems and cities that powered the world.
"Coal is intimately linked to the iron and steel industry," said West Virginia University associate professor of history William "Hal" Gorby.
And the pair — coal and steel — were vital to the Industrial Revolution.
Coal has been mined in the hills of West Virginia since before the state seceded from Virginia. But in the early days of the industry, the fuel was primarily used to heat homes. Once coal became intrinsic to the production of steel by the mid-19th century, a greater emphasis was placed on the coal industry to produce the technology of the future — from tools to trains to skyscrapers, Gorby said.
As steel companies were founded, sourcing high volumes of bituminous coal became a priority, and West Virginia was one of the few places that had both the right kind of coal and the volumes needed for industrial production.
While cooler-burning anthracite coal was plentiful in eastern Pennsylvania and New York, it did not burn hot enough for steel production. Bituminous, or metallurgical, coal, however, was abundant in western Pennsylvania and West Virginia, Gorby said.
In order to capitalize on proximity to source materials, many steel producers and steel-product manufacturers established themselves near Pittsburgh and Wheeling, where they also had access to nearby shipping lanes via the Ohio River.
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Trump Administration To Invest Millions In West Virginia Coal-Fired Power
WV Gov. Patrick Morrisey and other West Virginia leaders praised President Donald Trump for approximately $700 million in federal investment in coal-fired power generation, including in West Virginia.
Patrick Morrisey
Trump held a ceremony at the White House recently, attended by Morrisey and 2nd District Congressman Riley Moore, to announce he was using the Defense Production Act to repurpose up to $700 million in environmental funds for investments in energy infrastructure, improvements to existing coal-fired power plants, and new coal-fired power plant construction.
“Today, we’re taking historic action to bring down the price of energy and the cost of living for all Americans with the power of clean, beautiful coal,” Trump said, surrounded by members of Congress, governors, and administration officials.
Of the $700 million, approximately $425 million would be distributed to 13 coal-fired power plants in 10 states, including West Virginia. Details on which West Virginia coal-fired plant would receive funding were unavailable. The Defense Production Act, a relic from the early days of the Cold War, gives the president emergency authority to use federal resources to help vital industries.
“These were incredible plants, so productive, really producing a lot of the electricity,” Trump said. “Our actions will allow these facilities to invest in upgrades that will extend their operational lives for decades into the future, reinforce the reliability of our electric grid, which is really the biggest beneficiary, and, most importantly, keep electricity prices very low for the American people.”
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NIOSH Partners With Manufacturer to Develop Silica Dust Filtration Tool
A newly available silica dust filtration system can reduce up to 93% of respirable crystalline silica at mine sites, NIOSH claims.
Developed in a partnership between the agency and Benetech Inc., a manufacturer of safe bulk material handling solutions, the Dustinator can be retrofitted onto bins, tanks and conveyor systems to reduce airborne dust.
Exposure to respirable coal mine dust is the primary trigger of coal workers’ pneumoconiosis, a deadly condition also known as black lung. Numerous studies show that cases of black lung are on the rise.
NIOSH and Benetech created and tested three subsystems designed to work together for use on belt conveyors and at transfer points – those for passive dust control, active dust filtering and spray dust suppression.
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Trump Administration Pays Duke Energy $129 Million to Halt Offshore Wind Farm
The Trump administration has said it would pay Duke Energy $129 million to abandon its plans to build an offshore wind farm off North Carolina.
It was the fourth such deal struck by the administration to throttle the development of offshore wind power, a source of renewable energy that President Trump has disparaged for decades.
Under the agreement, Duke Energy would surrender its lease in federal waters for a wind farm that was planned in the Carolina Long Bay area, roughly 15 to 22 miles off southeastern North Carolina. The project was in the early stages of development and construction had not yet begun.
The government plans to reimburse Duke Energy $129 million, slightly less than the amount that the utility paid for the lease under the Biden administration. Duke Energy would then reinvest that money in other sources of energy favored by the Trump administration, which could include new nuclear and natural gas projects, according to the utility.
Scientists and environmentalists say that offshore wind farms could play a crucial role in the fight against climate change. Unlike burning fossil fuels, wind turbines do not generate any of the greenhouse gases that are dangerously warming the planet. And unlike large-scale solar farms, they do not take up vast amounts of valuable land.
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Endless Energy for America’s 250th
The United States’ 250th birthday is a wonderful opportunity to reflect on and celebrate the people and industries that made America. And there is no debate, the coal industry and America’s miners have played an extraordinary role in building the nation. From powering the engines of commerce, to fueling the industries that won two world wars and built the infrastructure and prosperity that has driven the American dream, coal has been there at every turn.
There is an embarrassment of riches of fascinating and inspiring moments for America’s coal legacy, but coal’s importance during and just after the second World War deserves a close-up.
In “Baker of the Bread of Abundance,” Kent shows us a family sitting down for a meal with the warm glow of coal illuminating and warming the table. The family sits in reverence, perhaps prayer, thankful for the blessings bestowed upon them.
Answering the Call
As the United States headed towards war in 1940, the coal industry was still trying to recover from the blow of the Great Depression. But the colossal energy and material needs of the war effort would soon require an extraordinary mobilization and push U.S. production to record levels. In 1940, U.S. coal production was 512.8 million tons. By 1944, it had soared to 684.9 million tons as coal fueled the factories, power plants and furnaces that were the foundation of the arsenal of democracy. It would take until 1976 to exceed that level of production.
U.S. industrial productive capacity changed the course of the war. U.S. industry provided nearly two-thirds of all Allied military equipment – including 297,000 aircraft, 193,000 artillery pieces, 86,000 tanks and two million army trucks. American shipyards turned out nearly 9,000 warships. By the close of the war, the U.S was home to more than half of the world’s industrial production.
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