West Virginia is the latest state to fight for coal's survival, complicating the Biden administration's efforts to green the grid and cut planet-warming pollution.
By Benjamin Storrow
CLIMATEWIRE | West Virginia's governor is begging. Lawmakers are pleading. And power plant workers are scrambling to save their jobs.
But one of West Virginia's largest coal plants may close this spring despite the rescue efforts of political leadership in one of America's top coal mining states.
The fate of Pleasants Power Station has become a litmus test of West Virginia's ability to preserve a fuel that has long underpinned its economy. The fight is being repeated in coal mining states across America. As coal disappears from the country's electric mix, mining states are launching efforts to save what remains of a once mighty industry.