Anthony Sable has seen West Virginia go through some of its best and worst times.

Born in Wheeling, West Virginia, near the Appalachian foothills, Sable’s father worked in the mines just like his grandfather. Sable is a fourth-generation coal miner and proud of it. He’s been working underground for the past 20 years. On April 8, he was invited to the White House to stand behind President Donald Trump as he signed four executive orders to revive America’s coal industry.

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Republicans have blamed environmental regulations enacted during the Obama and Biden administrations for the downfall of the country’s coal industry.

States such as West Virginia were left limping after mines closed, jobs evaporated, people fled, and towns went broke. However, a new generation of West Virginians began trying to rebuild the economy from the ground up. They focused on tourism and helped fix infrastructure problems to attract investors and visitors, and it started to work.

However, in his second term, Trump has pledged to resuscitate the coal industry and bring back high-paying jobs by lifting Obama- and Biden-era regulations. Trump has promised that coal states such as West Virginia will thrive again. While many doubt it will happen, especially with automation, that hasn’t stopped hope from building.

“We’re bringing back an industry that was abandoned,” Trump said of a coal renaissance at his executive order signing. “With us today are some of the amazing workers who will benefit from these policies.”

As a child, Sable saw the economic prosperity the coal industry brought to his town. However, he was also there when the only employment they had known dried up, and people were forced out of their homes. Like so many others, the 39-year-old father of three watched as vibrant towns turned into hollowed-out shells.

Sable is one of coal’s biggest cheerleaders. He told the Washington Examiner that the industry gets a bad rap because people don’t know about all the benefits and only focus on the negatives.

“Coal has been the lifeblood of West Virginia’s economy,” he said, ticking off a long list of uses for coal. “It’s been a good, honest living for generations … and generations to come can make a good living off it.”

Morgantown, West Virginia, resident Michael Brown told the Washington Examiner he has seen and heard enough to know that coal won’t save West Virginia. Brown, whose father worked in the mines and died of cancer in 1994, said the state’s economy finally got on the right track after investing heavily in tourism. However, with Trump back in the White House and pushing coal, Brown said he is worried people will be lured back and warned the state can’t take another hit.

“It’s a matter of survival, and in order to survive, West Virginia needs to continue to diversify,” he said. “Coal might have been what built the state, but it’s also what nearly killed it. Going back would be a nightmare.”

Dave Hatfield, who was a locomotive engineer for 30 years, agreed. Instead of leaving his hometown like almost everybody else, he decided to stay. Hatfield owns a lodging business and runs the Appalachian Lost and Found, a souvenir store in Matewan, a town in Mingo County, one of the hardest-hit coal mining corners of the state. Hatfield has watched a bustling town go dark.

“I saw entire neighborhoods and businesses disappear,” he told the Washington Examiner. “Decimated.”

Hatfield invested in the tourism economy, and though he said he hasn’t made much money, he plans on sticking it out for as long as he can.

“It’s my hometown and I hate to see things going the wrong way,” he said.

Hatfield added that people who are pushing for West Virginia to drop everything and get back on board with coal are “delusional.” He said it’s not that he doesn’t want the industry to come back, but he doesn’t think it can and doesn’t want the state consumed by it.

Erin Shephard, who grew up outside Morgantown, also agreed. She, too, has watched her state and its economy collapse because it was too dependent on coal.

“We cannot be a state that is solely reliant on one industry,” she said. “They can say whatever they want in D.C., but those same lawmakers know what it was like here. Coal isn’t the answer. It’s not sustainable.”

The effort to diversify the state’s economy was born out of necessity, and many people, like Hatfield, Shepard, and Brown, believe West Virginia shouldn’t be so quick to pin all its hopes on Trump’s promise of a coal revival. However, the trio stressed the importance of coal to their heritage.

The coal industry helped build West Virginia. It shaped its economy and culture. In their heyday, coal towns bustled with activity. One such town is Thurmond, which is located in a deep gorge and was once reachable only by train. In 1910, more than 4 million tons of coal were shipped from Thurmond, producing $4.8 million in freight revenues. While Thurmond had no streets or cars (it got its first in 1921), it did have homes, a hotel, banks, and a commercial district. Today, there are only five households, and the population hovers around seven residents.

Over the past two decades, coal use in the United States has fallen. Utilities have switched to cheaper, cleaner sources such as natural gas, wind, and solar power. While the transition has been the biggest reason for the drop in U.S. emissions since 2005, coal’s decline has wiped out towns in West Virginia that have based their entire economies around the industry.

During his first administration, Trump oversaw coal’s decline, not its resurgence. Even though Trump was responsible for gutting climate regulations and appointed Andrew Wheeler, a coal lobbyist, to lead the Environmental Protection Agency, 75 coal-fired power plants closed under his watch, leaving 13,000 people without a job.

Among the hardest-hit states was West Virginia, where large-scale coal mining began in the mid-1800s. Over the past decade, West Virginia has lost a greater percentage of its residents than any other state and is now one of the only states with fewer residents than it had in the 1950s. A U.S. Census estimate for 2024 put the population count at a little less than 1.8 million. In 1950, the state had 2 million residents.

Much of the decline is due to the loss of jobs in coal and steel. West Virginia, the nation’s second-largest coal producer, has lost 56% of its coal mining jobs since 2009 as power plants pivoted toward renewable energy sources. In 2023, only 14,014 coal-associated jobs remained in the state, compared to 21,091 in 2010. Still, the state accounts for 15% of the U.S.’s total coal production, according to data from the Energy Information Administration.

Williamson, West Virginia, Mayor Charles Hatfield believes economic diversification is key to his town’s future.

“We gotta shake the bonds of being dependent on one industry,” he told Mountain State Spotlight, noting obstacles such as how the area’s topography limits broadband and cell service, which makes it difficult to attract young people.

“I’m not a fool,” Charles Hatfield said. “Tourism will not replace the good-paying jobs of mining coal and the railroad industry, which was an ancillary part.”

Gilbert Michaud, an assistant professor of environmental policy at Loyola University Chicago, has spent time and worked in West Virginia. He told the Washington Examiner that the future is pretty clear.

“The coal industry has shaped West Virginia’s past, but tourism and other industries are what’s shaping the state’s future,” he said. “Reinvesting in coal comes with notable challenges, such as cost competitiveness and negative public sentiment toward fossil fuel energy. West Virginia’s challenge should be supporting sustainable economic development that doesn’t repeat the boom-and-bust cycles of the past. Leveraging the natural assets and strong workforce in the state, West Virginia should continue to push outdoor recreation and ecotourism, agriculture, and advanced manufacturing on former mining or industrial sites.”

In 2023, former Republican Gov. Jim Justice said he knew “from Day One” that “investing in our tourism industry was going to be a key driver in West Virginia’s rise.”

His successor, Gov. Patrick Morrisey (R-WV), agreed.

In March, Morrisey announced the creation of “Tourism Works,” an online education program designed to enhance hospitality skills and training among the state’s tourism workforce and everyday West Virginians. The announcement was made with the support of over 200 tourism and hospitality industry professionals at the State Capitol to celebrate the tourism industry’s record-setting $8.7 billion annual economic impact.

“As governor, one of my top priorities is to grow our economy, our population, and our workforce,” Morrisey said. “Our tourism and hospitality industry is one of the best in the country, and it will be a crucial part of West Virginia’s economic future.”

West Virginia’s tourism sector currently includes 70,000 hospitality and tourism jobs, with an expected 21,000 job openings each year, according to West Virginia Tourism Secretary Chelsea Ruby.

That same month, Morrisey stood shoulder to shoulder with the natural resource industry and asked the West Virginia Legislature to pass the Power Generation and Consumption Act, which would allow companies to develop independent energy grids using natural resources, including coal and gas.

“I am calling on the legislature to pass the Power Generation and Consumption Act to expand data center development in West Virginia, utilize our coal and natural gas resources, and attract significant investment to the state,” Morrisey said. “This is a once-in-a-generation opportunity for West Virginia to power the future of data, drive economic growth, and bring manufacturing and high-skilled jobs to West Virginia.”

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Morrisey was joined by Republican state Senate President Randy Smith, Republican state House Speaker Roger Hanshaw, and industry leaders.

“Governor Morrisey is taking a great step toward making West Virginia ‘America’s Energy State,’” said Charlie Burd, president of the Gas & Oil Association of West Virginia.