and China. Feeling the brunt, the coal industry experienced
its own downturn as a result.
Fortunately for West Virginia and its coal miners, that decline
was offset by Congress’ passage of an amendment to the Clean
Air Act in 1990 that introduced regulations on sulfur dioxide
and acid rain emissions that directly impacted the coal used
by electric utility companies. These utilities were required to
either install emission control technology to remove the sulfur
dioxide properties of their emissions or switch to low-sulfur
coal. As a result, the coal industry turned to providing steam
coal for electricity because of its low-sulfur dioxide compo-
sition and ability to burn quickly at very high temperatures.
This industry shift transitioned the mining priority in Southern
West Virginia away from metallurgical coal used for steel and
back toward steam coal. West Virginia’s overall coal production
during this time increased from 122 million tons in 1980 to
171 million tons in 1990.
“The amendments to the Clean Air Act hurt production in
other states with higher sulfur coal, but it helped us in West
Virginia,” says Bostic. “As a matter of fact, that huge demand
for low-sulfur steam coal probably saved Southern West Virginia
because metallurgical coal demand nearly evaporated during
that time.”
The 2000s brought another halt in the demand for coal due
to proposed changes in environmental policy regulations. The
Mercury and Air Toxic Standards rule, announced by the EPA
in March 2011, called for a reduction in emissions from coal-
and oil-fired power plants. The proposal, if passed, would have
required utility companies to install another type of scrubber
technology to remove mercury from their emissions.
Despite litigation delays, electric utility plants pursued mea-
sures to comply with the new standards. About 400 power
plants opted to close around the U.S. instead of installing the
expensive emissions control technology, which would have cost
approximately $1 billion per plant. This eventually lowered the
number of power plants receiving shipments of West Virginia
coal from 165 in 2008 to 51 in 2018.
In 2015, the Supreme Court ruled that the EPA unlawfully
failed to consider these costs when deciding to regulate the
emissions from the power plants. Unfortunately, the closure
of power plants prior to this decision had already halted the
demand for steam coal, resulting in record layoffs and record-
low production.
“Unfortunately for West Virginia, the power plants that
were closed were the ones that didn’t already have the scrub-
bers, which eliminated the need for low-sulfur steam coal,”
says Bostic. “The mercury regulation wiped out the demand
for our steam coal.”
The Challenges of Today’s Market
Today, coal is once again experiencing an upturn, thanks to
global demand for the fossil fuel. According to the West Vir-
ginia University Bureau of Business and Economic Research’s
“2018-2022 West Virginia Economic Outlook Report,” after
falling rapidly from 2013-2016, coal exports have surged in
recent years due to new growth in global steel production and
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