Keyser, West Virginia, is going through an energy transition as wind turbines are built around the traditional coal mining area.Keyser, West Virginia, is going through an energy transition as wind turbines are built around the traditional coal mining area.Sheila Wagoner is not a fan of the wind farm overlooking Keyser, West Virginia.
There is a popular perception in West Virginia that renewable energy has been killing the coal industry. However, that narrative is incomplete. Jobs in coal had been in decline decades before the wind turbines came to Keyser in 2012. "I like Joe. I talk to him a good bit. But the thing is a city like Keyser ever see any of that money," says Tillman."That money all goes to bigger cities – Morgantown, Jefferson County, Charleston. So it doesn't do us any good."Many in Keyser have pride in the coal roots of the town, and the hard work that went with it.Many in Keyser have pride in the coal roots of the town, and the hard work that went with it.
Despite the complex politics unfolding in the state and around the nation, Kercheval says that general acceptance is setting in that coal will not surge back to the way it once was.There's a misconception that renewables contributed to the decline in coal. But renewables had little to do with it.