or Appalachia coalminer William Muncy, the loss of his job means more than just the sudden lack of money – even though that is keenly felt in a region where mining jobs have kept whole towns alive for generations. “Coal was the backbone of our community, but now we’re forced to move on to find a different profession,” said Muncy, a miner at Redhawk Mining’s Spurlock Complex in Floyd county, Kentucky. Workers at the Redhawk mine were initially furloughed for three weeks beginning in late March, then returned to work on 20 April with reduced pay, before being laid off permanently on 11 May. During furlough, Muncy lost his 31-year-old wife to breast cancer, and is now out of work with two children to support. Like many in coal country, Muncy has been hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic. Over 6,000 coalmining jobs were lost in March and April 2020. There are now more job losses and mine closures in the coal industry than at any time since Dwight Eisenhower was president 60 years ago, and despite Donald Trump’s fervent promises to revive the coal sector. Damon Bugbee, a coalminer at the Redhawk complex for nearly eight years, was one of 182 coalminers terminated as a result of a decline in customer orders. “I have a wife that’s diabetic, a daughter going into college, another daughter in middle school, and me with allergy issues dependent on medication,” said Bugbee, who lost his health insurance benefits immediately following the job terminations. “It’s hard financially to still do the day-to-day. Vehicle payments, insurance, they still need to be paid.” Bugbee and other miners have filed for unemployment benefits, but are still struggling in the wake of the layoffs. “In the area we live in, there aren’t many jobs, especially not many jobs that pay as well as the mines,” said Zach Thornberry, another miner at Redhawk Mining who lost their job due to the closure. “There are plenty of us that have young kids. I have a two-month-old son, and my partner has twins that just turned a year old, so the thought of not having health insurance is a scary thing.” Myles Bates, a fifth-generation coalminer, worked at Redhawk for over three years before he was terminated. “You make good money as a miner, so it may be a month or two before we start to panic, but it will be hard to pay house payments and insurance,” said Bates. “The pandemic has changed everything in this area, and no one is saying if all this is for ever or just temporary.” Moody’s Investor Service noted 2020 will be “a very challenging year for the coal industry”, as it is one of the industries most heavily affected by the coronavirus pandemic. Electricity generation by coal is expected to fall by 20% in 2020, with production expected to decline by 22% as demand and exports have significantly declined. A recent US Energy Administration Information report projects more electricity will be produced in 2020 by renewable energy than coal for the first time ever. The collapse of coal is also proving devastating for non-mine workers whose jobs are tied to the industry, hurting communities where other jobs – especially well-paid ones – are already scarce. In Guernsey, Wyoming, BNSF Railway announced plans to eliminate 87 jobs and is rolling out job cuts in other areas as demand to transport coal has declined. “The trend of coal decline from before Covid is accelerating at a rapid pace,” said Shannon Anderson, staff attorney with the Wyoming-based environmental advocacy organization Powder River Basin Resource Council. “The pandemic has shown just how vulnerable coal is to energy economics and market forces, and it is in many places now the energy type of last resort.” Coal had already been in decline before the pandemic. In 2019, US coal-fired electricity generation hit a 42-year low. Eight US coal companies filed for bankruptcy in 2019. Bankruptcies continued into 2020. Foresight Energy, a coal company based in the midwest, filed for bankruptcy in March 2020 just before the coronavirus economic shutdowns in the US began. Hartshorne Mining Group in Kentucky filed for bankruptcy in February 2020. On 14 April, the West Virginia-based coal-fired power plant Longview Power, filed for bankruptcy, citing the pandemic. Meanwhile coalminers are increasingly finding themselves struggling for the basics of life. In Eskdale, West Virginia, Panther Creek Mining issued notice on 11 May announcing the closure of a mine, affecting 78 coalminers. Chris Barrier Thacker said her husband, Bill Thacker, was laid off without any notice and no severance. She said their family lost health insurance benefits immediately and are concerned about affording medications and doctor visits for their twin sons. “They did them dirty. They laid them off for two weeks, brought them back, worked them like dogs for two weeks and four days, then basically fired them,” she said. “They went to work, worked that day, and came home without a job.”