Life After Coal
Spring 2018 | By Laura J. Cole
Deep in the heart of Appalachian coal country, nestled among the mountains, you鈥檒l find Pikeville, Kentucky. Population: 7,000. Located in the part of Kentucky that looks like it鈥檚 driving a wedge between Virginia and West Virginia, Pikeville named itself 鈥淭he City That Moves Mountains,鈥� because in the 1980s, the town completed one of the largest civil engineering projects in the Western Hemisphere by rerouting a river to stop it from flooding the town.
鈥淭hese are very determined people,鈥� says resident Kevin Loux 鈥�10, 鈥減eople who work hard and are determined to get things done 鈥� like moving a river.鈥�
Loux, who earned an economics degree from 激情快播, cites this as an example of the character of the people who live here. These are the people who produced more coal than any other county in Kentucky.
The people of Pike County, of which Pikeville is the center, produced 1.6 billion tons of coal between 1889 and 2015. Take into consideration that Kentucky, of which Pike County is but the smallest fraction, once produced more coal than any other state in the nation. And that coal was used to fuel cities across the Midwest such as Chicago, Cincinnati and Pittsburgh. Also take into consideration that coal mining, especially underground coal mining, is one of the most dangerous and physically challenging jobs on the planet.
Despite the danger, in the heyday of coal employment in the late 1940s, coal jobs employed 18 percent of Pike County鈥檚 population. In 2017, that number was closer to 1 percent. That鈥檚 a drastic change in employment and economic opportunities for a town that鈥檚 nearly 90 minutes away from the nearest interstate.
鈥淚f you look at the Appalachian Regional Commission鈥檚 map for all the Appalachian counties in the United States, eastern Kentucky鈥檚 referred to as the red dot, and it has been that way since the 1960s,鈥� Loux says. 鈥淚t鈥檚 one of the most economically distressed regions in the country.鈥�
鈥淚t鈥檚 one of the most economically distressed regions in the country.鈥�
As the director of strategic partnerships for Shaping Our Appalachian Region, a bipartisan initiative formed in 2013 to create jobs and spur innovation in the region, Loux is working to fix that.
We asked him whether coal production and employment would ever recover and how eastern Kentucky can redefine itself for the modern era.
Putting Coal Miners Back to Work
鈥淚f you look at the historical timeline of the coal industry, you鈥檒l see that peak production doesn鈥檛 actually correlate with peak employment. The peak for coal production was much later 鈥� after they modernized the industry and had more technology聽and more automation. Overall, employment in the coal industry has been declining since the 鈥�50s. This means that even if coal production spikes, it鈥檚 not going to directly translate into a lot of jobs. Coal alone simply can鈥檛 replace what we鈥檝e lost in terms of jobs.鈥�
Broadband For The People
鈥淲e are in the center of a 鈥╮egion that doesn鈥檛 have an鈥� interstate. If you look at the development of the highway鈥╯ystem in the 鈥�50s and the 鈥�60s,鈥╰he highway infrastructure enabled all sorts of interstate commerce and economic activity, but we were left out. We were instead left with efforts like the war on poverty that failed to address the root cause of the problem. Broadband has the potential to do聽for job creation in this century what highways and railways did for the last century. That鈥檚 why we鈥檙e taking such a fervent approach on broadband. If we don鈥檛 do this, we鈥檒l be in the same situation 60 years from now.鈥�
A Focus on Public Health
鈥淚n addition to high-levels of unemployment, Appalachian Kentucky is also one of the poorest health regions in the nation. We have a partnership with the Centers for Disease Control, and they have placed two officials in our office, working specifically on obesity, diabetes and substance abuse. This partnership is what enabled us to host the first health Hackathon in the region, provide treatment and employment opportunities for recovering addicts, and host numerous events to engage stakeholders in creative problem- solving efforts.鈥�
Education Tailored For Career Paths
鈥淲e鈥檝e worked with our local workforce innovation board and others in the region to tailor education so that it directly leads to a career. By working with private companies and educators, we trained students for specific jobs. One of the respondents of our workforce study said, 鈥業f there鈥檚 a job at the end of the tunnel, there isn鈥檛 much I wouldn鈥檛 go through to get it.鈥� 鈥�