Ty Wright/Bloomberg News
Before dawn, a coal miner named Cameron Justice stopped at a gas station in Mingo County, W.V., grabbing two cans of Monster Energy before heading into the pits.
He could use the jolt. The barrel-chested 37-year-old works six shifts a week at the Ruby Energy mine in the heart of U.S. coal country. Last year, he was lucky to get four.
“We’re booming,” Justice said. “This is the biggest upswing I’ve seen in five years. Everyone’s excited.”
Like a mountain stream reviving after a drought, money is trickling into Appalachia again — at least, for now.
The boom is being compelled by a trio of global forces: Chinese production curbs, President Donald Trump’s anti-regulatory policies and investor bets that have, over the last year, doubled the market value of publicly traded U.S. coal companies, to $15 billion.
That boon can lift towns like Logan, W.V., population 1,800, where streets that once bustled with small businesses are now blighted with shuttered stores, boarded-up windows and sidewalks laced with cracks.
But the gossip here is no longer about mine closures and mass layoffs. Miners are snagging $1,000 signing bonuses, fully paid health insurance and raises again. For his part, Justice just earned a 50-cent-an-hour bump.
At the Marathon gas station where Justice stopped for breakfast, business was up 15% in only the last couple of months. Owner Isom Ooten has extended store hours after cutting back just last year.
“Coal in our counties is number one, I don’t care what they say,” Ooten said. “I want the economy to come back.”
Southern West Virginia, a rolling mountainscape of coal-producing counties, has much ground to make up. Large, out-of-state companies built camps for workers generations ago that grew into thriving towns that are now near collapse.
| By Tim Loh Bloomberg News |
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