Obama’s POWER+ Plan Offers a Crucial Step Forward for Coal Industry Communities

The outlook for the U.S. coal industry is bleak. So is life for the communities that the industry most heavily affects. A bold new initiative launched by President Obama—that has already garnered the widespread, bipartisan support of elected officials throughout Appalachia—aims to help.

From the coalfields to coal plant communities, the U.S. is in the midst of a historic and rapid energy transformation. Low natural gas prices, tighter clean air and carbon regulations, and the increasing cost competitiveness of renewable energy all contribute to a shift away from coal. Although these changes reflect progress toward a clean energy economy, they have left many regions and communities in a state of transition.

Plans for hundreds of new coal plants have been scuttled over the past several years and scores more are being shuttered each year in a trend that shows no sign of slowing. While these shutdowns are good news from a climate and public health perspective, they often deal a particularly harsh financial blow to their communities. And when a coal plant retires, not only do its workers lose their jobs. Local governments, school districts, and public-service agencies suffer when these plants are removed from local property tax rolls. Put simply, localities often lose their largest taxpayer.

These pressures will affect communities in nearly every state, but Appalachia’s coal industry has its own unique set of challenges. Since 2011, the number of coal-mining jobs in the U.S. has plummeted, with more than 14,000 losses in Kentucky and West Virginia alone. The economies of coalfield communities in Central Appalachia have always struggled, but the structural changes at work now are feeding a growing recognition that the region must transition to a more just and sustainable economy.

That’s why President Obama is pushing for funding for the Partnerships for Opportunity and Workforce and Economic Revitalization, aka the POWER+ Plan (an expansion of the smaller existing POWER Plan) in his budget request to Congress. Pending Congressional approval, the federal government for the first time ever could soon be investing $10 billion over the next several years in the changing economy of Appalachia. The initiative, which would begin next year, would support investment in workers and jobs while addressing important industry legacy costs in coal country.

Although Congress must act for POWER+ to go forward, the administration is out in front already by recently making a “down payment” by assisting the states hardest hit through its program of POWER grants. In mid-October, the competitive-award initiative, coordinated by the Departments of Commerce and Labor, the Small Business Administration and the Appalachian Regional Commission, announced $14.5 million in grants to coal industry communities.

These grants support a range of economic development activities, including a creative, high-tech workforce development program in eastern Kentucky, a redevelopment plan for a power plant in Chicago and a social enterprise project focused on wood-product manufacturing in Southeast Ohio. Other grants will fund sustainable forestry initiatives, support research on how to repurpose abandoned mines, shore up tourism and recreation and bolster infrastructure projects critical to attracting new industry (see the full list of POWER grant recipients here.)

Philanthropic groups have stepped up too. After learning of President Obama’s POWER initiative, the Rockefeller Family Fund and the Appalachian Funders Network created the Just Transition Fund, which quickly awarded grants to nonprofit organizations grappling with transition in coal industry communities. The fund has helped expand the capacity of local community-based groups to apply for more support and has helped showcase the demand for economic transition investments.

While the bulk of the POWER grants focus heavily on Appalachia, more grants are likely, and advocates are hopeful that bigger help is on the way.

WHILE POWER GRANTS ARE IMPORTANT, THEY ARE NOT ENOUGH—WHAT’S REQUIRED IS A BROADLY AMBITIOUS PROGRAM on a scope and scale commensurate with the magnitude of the problem. These communities need investments that will build deep and lasting hope.

As the coal industry continues its long, slow decline and as the U.S. turns to cleaner and more efficient ways to produce electricity, economic changes associated with these shifts will raise increasingly profound local implications. Without significant federal assistance, communities in coal-producing regions—as well as cities and towns where coal plants are being retired—will be hard pressed to manage on their own.

POWER+ would be an enormous step toward addressing that need, and the initiative got a lift when Congressional leaders recently struck what’s been called the budget deal to end all budget deals. The Bipartisan Budget Act, which was just signed into law by President Obama, increases federal discretionary spending and, simply put, gives Congress the ability to fund the initiative next year at the level requested by President Obama.

Sometime over the next month or so, Congress will hammer out its final federal spending plan for 2016 in an Omnibus Spending Bill. Although it remains to be seen how POWER + will fare, advocates in support of just, economic transitions for coal industry communities are optimistic. Across the four states of Central Appalachia, local elected officials—both Democrats and Republicans—have passed more than two dozen resolutions in support of POWER+. These leaders understand the importance of the program, and see it for what it is: a vital spark for economic development in their communities.

Let’s hope Congress understands this, too.

Heidi Binko is associate director of special climate initiatives for the Rockefeller Family and an advisory board member of the Governance, Environment and Markets Initiative at Yale University.