US EditionCoal miners head to court over Trump cuts to black lung screening staff
- President Donald Trump signed executive orders in early 2025 aiming to revive the U.S. Coal industry by expanding mining on federal lands and loosening regulations.
- These measures address the long-term drop in coal jobs driven primarily by economic competition from more affordable and cleaner alternatives, rather than solely by regulatory actions.
- The coal industry currently employs about 11,000 workers compared to over 130,000 in the 1950s, while concerns grow over deteriorating mine safety and a resurgence of black lung disease.
- Health programs protecting miners face cuts and the suspension of the Coal Workers' Health Surveillance Program leaves hundreds of X-rays unanalyzed, increasing risks of respiratory illness and death.
- While supporters hope Trump's policies will boost coal and protect miners, experts warn market trends and health risks make coal's recovery uncertain and possibly unsustainable.
31 Articles
31 Articles
West Virginia ranks second in the nation for workplace fatality rate. Cuts could make it worse.
West Virginia had the second-deadliest workplace fatality rate in the country, behind Wyoming, according to the AFL-CIO’s annual Death on the Job report released last month. It tracks the number of workplace fatalities, injuries and illnesses per state. The state’s workplace fatality rate is twice the national average, and 58 West Virginians lost their lives on the job in 2023, up from 48 the year before. Josh Sword, president of the West Virgin…
westvirginiawatch.com
kentuckylantern.comWV coal miners ask federal judge for injunction to keep NIOSH functioning to protect from black lung
The NIOSH Coal Worker's Health Surveillance Program offered periodic black lung screenings at no cost to coal miners in the U.S. (NIOSH photo)As the federal government moves forward with a “reorganization” that has left the Coal Workers Health Surveillance Program largely unstaffed, attorneys for West Virginia coal miners are asking a federal judge to issue a preliminary injunction to keep the program running and grant miners a protection agains…
100 days in, does Trump still ‘dig’ coal?
Jeffrey Willig doesn’t mine coal anymore. For nine years he worked underground, most recently for a company called Blackjewel, which laid off around 1,700 workers in June of 2019 without paying them. Robbed of their final paycheck, Willig and the others set up camp and blocked the company’s last trainload of “black gold” from leaving Harlan County, Kentucky, beginning what would be months of protest. They called on Democrats and Republicans alik…
OP-ED: Trump is ending the war on coal. He's saving Kentucky jobs and our economy
America needs coal. For generations, our nation has tapped into coal’s unparalleled benefits as an affordable and reliable energy source to power us to greatness. Coal miners continue to fuel everything from the cutting-edge manufacturing jobs and data centers of…
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