West Virginia Lawmakers Created a Commission to Help Struggling Coal Communities. Gov. Jim Justice Still Hasn’t Appointed Members

By Alexa Beyer, Mountain State Spotlight

Al Anderson has lived the majority of his 82 years in Scotts Run, a five-mile hollow encompassing thirteen small, unincorporated former coal communities close to Morgantown.

“You don’t get much help here. That’s the main thing,” he said.

Scotts Run is a shadow of what it once was when coal dominated the area’s economy. But Anderson, who works at the local mining museum, was hopeful when he heard lawmakers were coming to town in November 2021 to get his and his neighbors’ input on how to improve the community.

A year later, despite the press releases and listening sessions and a report with more than eighty recommendations, nothing has come of the committee’s work. 

Lawmakers only passed one bill from the committee, and even that has gone nowhere: the legislation created a commission to which Gov. Jim Justice hasn’t bothered to appoint any members eight months later.

“We were let down,” said Delegate Ed Evans, D-McDowell. “They gave us a committee and it did nothing,” he said.

Delegate Mark Dean, R-Mingo, who chaired the committee, couldn’t think of anything more he had wished the committee had passed. 

“There’s lots that we didn’t get to but the ones we did were the cornerstone ideas that most of the recommendations related to.”

Report leads to almost no legislation

In the past fifteen years, West Virginia has lost over 40% of its full-time coal mining jobs. The loss has devastated families and hollowed out once-thriving communities as former miners have struggled to find new careers that support themselves and their families. 

That was the backdrop when House Speaker Roger Hanshaw announced the creation of the workgroup that turned into the House Select Committee on Coalfield Communities in June 2021. 

“These members will now have the authority and the flexibility to go into communities, communicate with officials at all levels, and really determine what our coal communities need to succeed so they can come back to us with solid recommendations and then drive those solutions home to the full Legislature when we come back next session,” he said in a press release.

But not very much was driven home. After a listening tour, lawmakers wrote a report that recommended the Legislature help build thriving downtowns in coalfield communities, enact policies that lead to increased wages (including replacement wages for former coal miners) and support vocational training for in-demand jobs. It recommended providing help for miners not receiving health benefits and expanding mobile mental health services.