CLIMATE
Trump is still courting coal workers. This county shows why it matters.

A fading coal town in Pennsylvania is struggling to replace the jobs and money that the fossil fuel industry once offered.

By Maxine Joselow
June 24, 2024 at 6:30 a.m. EDT



With the shuttered Homer City Generating Station in the background, a worker moves coal refuse in Center Township, Pa., on June 12. (Scott Lewis for The Washington Post)

INDIANA COUNTY, Pa. — Biden administration officials came here this month with an upbeat message for residents: We will help you navigate the nation’s transition away from fossil fuels. … During a roughly two-hour meeting in a stuffy conference room, officials assured the audience that the federal government hasn’t forgotten about this spot about an hour east of Pittsburgh, where coal mines began closing in the 1980s and the state’s largest coal-fired power plant shut down last year.

Then the venting started. Several residents stood up and expressed frustration that the federal government has forgotten about a place struggling to replace the jobs and tax base that the coal industry once offered it. … “We get overlooked all the time,” said LuAnn Zak, assistant director of the Indiana County Office of Planning and Development.
“There’s nothing being put out to help energy workers,” said Aric Baker, president of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 459, which had represented roughly 120 workers now laid off from the Homer City Generating Station.

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To win Pennsylvania, Biden will need to convince voters in communities like this one that they won’t be left behind as the nation shifts to cleaner sources of power than coal, the dirtiest fossil fuel. But many residents here support Donald Trump, who has vowed to ease environmental regulations if he returns to the White House, in the hopes the former president could resurrect the Homer City Generating Station.

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The Homer City plant struggled to compete economically with cheaper natural gas and renewable energy even before Biden set tough new limits on pollution from power plants. But some locals are confident that Trump can revive it. … “I think if he gets back in, you’ll see this coal plant open back up,” said Tom Roser, 72, who worked at the plant for roughly 40 years before retiring in 2014.

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Clara Ence Morse contributed to this report.

By Maxine Joselow
Maxine Joselow is a staff writer who covers climate change and the environment. Twitter https://x.com/maxinejoselow