“I want to see our state move forward.”

A West Virginia city that historically relied on coal is transitioning to clean energy. While some residents remain skeptical, the promising changes could pay off in the future.

In February, NPR detailed how Keyser, with a population of about 5,000, installed its first wind turbines in 2012. Following the passage of the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act, West Virginia is seeing an infusion of funds to invest in renewable energy projects.

“We have all this green energy money coming to West Virginia, and there have been more economic development announcements in the state in the last two years than I can remember,” said Hoppy Kercheval, host of the West Virginia MetroNews radio show “Talkline.”

According to U.S. Department of Labor data cited by NPR, the number of miners in the United States has declined by 90% since the industry’s peak about a century ago. The shift toward natural gas and automation technology that began in the 1980s contributed to this decline, but the sector was already in decline by the 1920s. Keyser was no exception.

Now, a new era is on the horizon as the world works to adopt less polluting ways of generating electricity. In addition to cooling our overheated planet, powering our world with clean sources provides economic and health benefits.

Coal is by far the dirtiest fuel. According to the Climate Council, when burned, it releases toxic substances that have been linked to potentially fatal health problems, including cancer.

Doug Vance, who manages the Pinnacle Wind Farm in Keyser, told NPR that, like the rest of his family, he worked in the coal industry before taking his latest position. But at this point, a wind farm can’t employ as many people as coal could at its peak.

IRA tax benefits have helped individual Americans happily save thousands of dollars on green improvements like solar panels and electric vehicles.

But Eleanor Krause, a renewable energy labor researcher, believes that a greater emphasis on workforce development as opposed to these incentives could help places like Keyser create even more jobs and take full advantage of federal funds, telling NPR that the additional training programs at state universities and colleges could prepare people for a new industry.

According to the U.S. Department of Energy, the renewable energy sector currently employs about 8 million people, but in 2021 and 2022, energy jobs “grew faster than total U.S. employment.”

Some decommissioned coal plants are even being converted to cleaner technologies, including a once-highly polluting plant in Nevada that now serves as an energy storage facility that helps consumers lower their electricity bills.

While more work needs to be done to quell the skepticism of some Keyser residents, as NPR reports, some West Virginians are actually using existing programs to help transition to clean energy careers.

“I want to stay here and I want to see our state move forward,” said Josh Bowes, who is in the Eastern West Virginia and Technical College Advanced Technology/Wind Energy program. “We need to modernize. We have to do what’s best for our state, country, world, you know?”

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