Trump’s vow to revive coal country is met with measured hope in West Virginia

WILLIAMSON, W. VA. • The view in West Virginia coal country is that president-elect Donald Trump has something to prove: that he’ll help bring back Appalachian mining, as he promised time and again on the campaign trail. Nobody thinks he can revive it entirely. But for the first time in years, coal towns are seeing a commodity that had grown scarcer than the coal trains that used to rumble through around the clock: hope.

Around here that hope is measured. Still, most voters saw Trump as the only choice for president. He vowed to undo looming federal rules and said President Barack Obama had been “ridiculous” to the industry. West Virginians went all in, backing Trump and electing a coal mine-owning billionaire, Democrat Jim Justice, as governor.

But a lot of people had gone under already.

“Lost my home, vehicle, everything,” said Roger Prater. Prater would be heading underground that night. He’d been laid off for 20 months but now benefits from a small hiring surge.

At 31, Prater said he can get everything back, but he’s uncertain for how long.

“In Trump’s term, I feel we’ll do good, but after that who’s to say?” he said.

That skepticism is supported by analysts, who say any recovery won’t be centred in the eastern coalfields of Kentucky and West Virginia and will never bring U.S. coal back to what it once was.

Mines out west stand to gain the most under Trump because of huge reserves beneath public lands in Wyoming, Montana, Colorado and Utah.