As Coal Mines Close, Displaced Miners Find Work in Renewable Energy Boom

Dale Davis, a retired coal miner in Cadiz, Ohio, left the profession because of a lack of job security. Laid off four times in the course of more than three decades in mining, Davis has worked in the pharmaceutical delivery business since 2013. He liked working in the mines and the good pay and benefits, but frequent layoffs kept him on edge, and he was never sure when he might lose his job.

He’s one of tens of thousands of coal miners who have left the industry in the last decade amid declining profits and stricter regulations because of the industry’s major contribution to climate change. Many of these former miners are now looking for work that provides similar pay and benefits, and the potential for new jobs in the growing clean energy sector gives them cautious hope.
 

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Davis is encouraged by a new labor-management agreement between Sparkz Inc., a battery manufacturing startup, and the United Mine Workers of America that prioritizes displaced miners for jobs at an upcoming West Virginia battery plant. Some of the miners in his community are in their 50s and 60s and nearing retirement, he said. “But I think if the younger guys had an opportunity, … I don’t think it would be a no-brainer, but if they had a chance to make decent money and receive health and benefits for their family, they would jump right on board.”

The Sparkz battery plant is among a number of clean energy projects that will benefit from tax credits included in President Joe Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act. The landmark climate and investment law earmarked a certain amount of funding for projects located in energy communities. Energy communities include locations that have met a certain threshold of fossil fuel-related employment or have had a coal mine closed since 1999.

Taylor County, West Virginia, the proposed site of the Sparkz factory, meets both requirements. Other communities are located throughout the U.S. but are mostly concentrated in the Rust Belt and the Southwest. In addition to West Virginia, states such as Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Nevada, Illinois, Kentucky, Pennsylvania and Michigan have a high concentration of energy communities.

Under the March 2022 Sparkz agreement, the plant will manufacture cobalt-free lithium-ion batteries, which can be used for electric vehicles and grid energy storage. The union and battery company will collaborate to train former miners to be the first employees at the Taylor County factory once it opens, and Sparkz has agreed to not interfere with the workers’ right to form a union. The project could provide a blueprint for how workers left behind in the energy transition can get back to work and advance the green economy.

The number of coal mining jobs in the United States has long been in decline. Since 2012, employed coal miners have dwindled from about 90,000 to less than 42,000. Environmental and labor advocates often speak of a “just transition,” an economy-wide replacement of fossil fuel usage with renewable energy that offers new jobs and support for current fossil fuel workers. Putting it into practice is no small task.
 

“The union has never disputed the science with respect to climate change. What we’ve always disputed is the government’s response to how to deal with it.”

~ Phil Smith, chief of staff, United Mine Workers of America

 
For the mineworkers union, a chief concern is whether a new job for a former mineworker comes with the same level of pay, job security and right to organize as they had when working in a mine.

Erin Bates, the union’s communications director, outlined the thinking behind the Sparkz partnership. “We’ve been a huge advocate of getting people back to work. A lot of these communities have closed coal mines, and their mines are not going to reopen,” Bates said. “And so the idea behind this [agreement] is to make sure that West Virginians are getting the jobs and the benefits and the pay that they deserve.”

Sparkz and the union are still developing a training process for former miners to prepare them for battery manufacturing. Bates expects the transition to be smooth because coal miners are familiar with heavy machinery and typically work in multiple roles throughout their careers.

Sparkz said it intends to apply for the Inflation Reduction Act’s Advanced Energy Project Credit  to invest in repurposing a defunct glass factory into an operational battery plant. The credit covers 6% of the upfront investment and increases to 30% if the company pays its employees at the prevailing wage level and uses apprentice labor.

The union is happy with the prevailing wage provision but wishes the act’s labor requirements went further. “The company [receiving a tax credit] does not have to be a union facility,” Bates said. “If they’re not getting a career out of this, … what are you really doing to help the worker? We would argue that the best way to get a prevailing wage and to have the benefits that they deserve would be to be a union facility.”

As coal jobs continue to dry up, the union is focused both on fighting to preserve existing mining jobs and on finding new lines of work for laid-off miners. The union wants to keep current coal mines open but advocates deploying carbon capture and storage to mitigate carbon emissions from coal-burning power plants.

“The union has never disputed the science with respect to climate change,” said Phil Smith, the union’s chief of staff. “What we’ve always disputed is the government’s response to how to deal with it.”

For many miners, their profession is a key part of their identity and a continuation of  long-running family traditions. Finding a new career after a coal plant closes may be daunting, but some former miners might welcome a different work environment, Smith said.

A new career “has the benefit of not having to go down in a hole in the ground every day,” Smith said. Some coal miners look forward to going down the mine shafts, but others — especially those who have been unable to find a mining job for a while — might find a non-mining career more attractive, Smith said.
 

“As much as we’d like to see a one-for-one of fossil fuel workers who lose their jobs getting new jobs in the clean energy sector, we’re not going to see that all the time.”

~ Thom Kay, program manager for energy transition, BlueGreen Alliance

 
In addition to Sparkz’s agreement with the UMWA, the battery manufacturer also signed a memorandum of understanding with the United Auto Workers union in April. Why has the company decided to work with the unions? “The SPARKZ/UAW agreement … provides SPARKZ with a partnership to recruit and train the best workers in America,” said Sanjiv Malhotra, CEO, president and founder of Sparkz, in a statement provided by his spokesman. “SPARKZ believes the agreement with UAW will make it more competitive against industry leaders by leveraging the talents of auto workers that focus on the highest quality and safety standards.”

The UAW is currently engaged in a strike against the Big Three automakers for higher pay and more equitable wage scales, and electric vehicle (EV) manufacturing conditions have also become a key issue for the union. In July, more than two dozen Democratic senators penned a letter urging executives of the Big Three automakers and their joint venture battery manufacturing partners to increase EV workers’ wages, which start at $16.50 an hour. The letter mentions that Department of Energy loans funded by the IRA require companies to create “good-paying jobs.” Ford, for example, received a $9.2 billion loan commitment for EV battery manufacturing in June.

Workers at Ultium Cells LLC, a joint venture between General Motors Co. and South Korea’s LG Energy Solution Ltd., recently voted to be represented by the UAW, marking the first union organized at an electric vehicle battery manufacturing plant. Workers at Ultium and other joint venture EV plants are not yet covered by the UAW’s master contract — something the UAW hopes to change in its negotiations. Ultium recently received a $2.5 billion loan from the Department of Energy.

Expected increasing demand for electric vehicles, helped by government policies, could drive down production of internal combustion vehicles. Autoworkers making such cars will likely share the fate of coal workers today should EVs take over the car market.

“If I’m working making an [internal combustion] car, and I see these targets of, ‘By this day we’re going to be 50% electric vehicles and by that day we’re going to be 75% and by that day we’re going to be 100%,’ that’s scary to me,” said Mike Miller, the UAW’s Region 6 director, who oversees union activities in the Western U.S.

The UAW supports government incentives to hasten EV manufacturing, but it wants workers to benefit with high-paying jobs and to have a voice through collective bargaining. “We just want to make sure that in that process it’s not just taking your and my tax dollars and giving it to billionaire investors or owners or executives of electric car companies,” Miller said. “The transition can be done in the best and fastest way possible with worker participation.”

Thom Kay, program manager for energy transition at the BlueGreen Alliance, a nonprofit that connects environmental organizations with labor unions, thinks Sparkz’s partnership with the mineworkers union is a step in the right direction. “I’m really excited to see it happening,” Kay said. “I think it shows that it’s a good example for other companies.”

But completing the transition to renewable energy will likely leave some workers without a job, Kay added. He thinks rebuilding local tax bases and providing older workers a bridge to retirement will be needed for an equitable energy transition. “As much as we’d like to see a one-for-one of fossil fuel workers who lose their jobs getting new jobs in the clean energy sector, we’re not going to see that all the time,” he said.

“It’s also important to see all the funding for mine reclamation and … the Appalachian Regional Commission and the Economic Development Administration,” Kay said. “We need to see more of that for economic development of all kinds … because it’s not going to be as simple as ‘The coal plant shuts down, now everybody’s up on a wind turbine.’”

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