\n<\/p>\n
For a moment, Jacob Hannah saw an unprecedented opportunity to make Appalachia great again.<\/p>\n
In 2022, the Biden administration earmarked billions of dollars to help revitalize and strengthen former coal communities. The objective was to lay down building blocks for the region to transition from extractive industries like coal and timber to a hub for solar and other advanced energy technologies, with a view to long-term economic, climate and social resilience.<\/p>\n
But on his first day in office, Donald Trump scrapped Biden\u2019s clean energy and environmental programs, which he lambasted as woke, anti-American liberal hoaxes.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe knew we were living in a historic moment, not just because of the amount of funding, but because the whole region mobilized to meet the moment,\u201d said Hannah, 33. \u201cIt was a once-in-a-generation cash injection designed to prioritize extraction-based communities as part of the energy transition, which for the first time in almost a century made Appalachia very competitive. So to have it all taken away is deeply damaging and demoralizing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hannah, a fifth-generation Appalachian with a bushy beard and signature wide-brimmed hat, has been crisscrossing the country on a mission to raise philanthropic capital to limit the economic damage caused by the Trump administration taking a chainsaw to Biden-era grants.<\/p>\n
Hannah runs Coalfield Development, a non-profit organization headquartered in Huntington, focused on rebuilding south-west Virginia\u2019s economy and social fabric through workforce training, job creation and revitalizing abandoned buildings and mines in some of the most forgotten corners of coal country.<\/p>\n
<\/span>People shop at the Wild Ramp, a non-profit local farmers\u2019 market.<\/span> Photograph: Michael Swensen\/The Guardian<\/p>\n Coalfield has trained over 4,000 people \u2013 including many formerly incarcerated and\/or in addiction recovery \u2013 over the past 15 years in everything from solar installation to drywalling and first aid. Yet, historically, federal grants for community regeneration efforts in Appalachia have been mostly top-down, project-based and short-lived.<\/p>\n The 2022 cash injection came through the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), Biden\u2019s landmark climate and infrastructure legislation, and was designed to help revitalize and strengthen former coal communities over the long haul.<\/p>\n It was the largest investment in Appalachia since the 1960s\u2019 \u201cwar on poverty\u201d under Lyndon Johnson.<\/p>\n In response, Coalfield Development spearheaded a coalition of universities, unions, nonprofits, businesses and local governments to create collective infrastructure and capacity, enabling coal-impacted rural communities across the US access more than $900m of the historic IRA investment.<\/p>\n Rural communities in Appalachia were on the verge of breaking ground on projects when the grants were paused or terminated by the so-called \u201cdepartment of government efficiency\u201d, or Doge, led by the billionaire Trump donor Elon Musk. The wholesale cull included the $3bn Environmental and Climate Justice Program created in the IRA to tackle the climate crisis and environmental harms at a local level.<\/p>\n A few grants have since been reinstated, but are subject to long delays \u2013 in part because so many staff at federal agencies were forced out by Doge. Many remain the subject of litigation. Every single grant Coalfield Development was helping coordinate has been impacted in some way.<\/p>\n <\/span>Kalob Smith removes mud from the tracks of an excavator.<\/span> Photograph: Michael Swensen\/The Guardian<\/p>\n The cuts have deepened existing mistrust in government, known colloquially as Appalachian fatalism, yet many of those interviewed by the Guardian blame Washington politics generally rather than Trump.<\/p>\n \u201cThis party has taken away that funding from Appalachia illegally: that\u2019s the stone-cold fact. But by the time those facts reach communities on the ground, it\u2019s just so muddy. I think some are asking questions about why training is being shut down and why they didn\u2019t get their Snap [food assistance] benefits, but where they\u2019ll find the answers is the big issue,\u201d said Hannah.<\/p>\n H<\/span>untington, the second largest city in West Virginia with 45,000 residents, was perhaps a perfect place to build a coalition for the massive IRA investment across coal country. Located on the Ohio river, it was once a major transportation hub for the region\u2019s coalfields, but suffered major economic and social decline as the surrounding mines shut down \u2013 and then became an epicenter of the opioid epidemic.<\/p>\n It sits at the heart of the Bible belt, which once voted loyally with Democrats but like many blue-collar regions is now part of the loyal Maga base who believed Trump when he pledged to resuscitate coal country and put American first.<\/p>\n Trump has won big in West Virginia in the past three general elections, securing every county in 2024 with an average of 70% of the vote \u2013 the highest percentage any party has won in the state\u2019s history. His vote share was even larger in rural counties including Clay and Wayne, which Huntington straddles.<\/p>\n <\/span>A person walks through an empty lot in Huntington, West Virginia. Once a major transportation hub for coalfields, Huntington experienced economic and social decline after mines shut down.<\/span> Photograph: Michael Swensen\/The Guardian<\/p>\n The Guardian\u2019s visit coincided with the Democrats drubbing the Republicans in several state elections \u2013 including the governor\u2019s race in Virginia.<\/p>\n It was also five weeks into the government shutdown, just days after the Trump administration announced that millions of Americans would not receive food stamps and Tesla shareholders approved a trillion-dollar pay package for Musk.<\/p>\n The damage caused by Trump\u2019s dismantling of Biden-era programs was visible all around Coalfield Development\u2019s redbrick office, which is located in a former manufacturing hub between the rail tracks and the river.<\/p>\n Next door, a multimillion-dollar redevelopment of a sprawling industrial site known as the Black Diamond warehouse has stalled \u2013 at first due to grant suspensions, and more recently due to the federal shutdown slowing down payments. Coalfield is still waiting for close to $3m in overdue reimbursements.<\/p>\n The warehouse, which once manufactured military planes, jeeps and coal trains, is being repurposed as a hub for sustainable industries and training. But all six EPA grants for Reuse Corridor, a new social enterprise to salvage and repurpose mattresses, electronics and other materials frequently dumped in the Ohio river, were cut, effectively killing the business and with it countless job opportunities.<\/p>\n <\/span>Jacob Hannah, CEO of Coalfield Development, walks towards the Black Diamond warehouse.<\/span> Photograph: Michael Swensen\/The Guardian<\/p>\n Meanwhile, Solar Holler, a solar developer and installation company with 105 employees across Kentucky, West Virginia, Ohio and Virginia, signed up for a new office in the warehouse as the business had been growing 20 to 30% annually.<\/p>\n But tax incentives for residential solar, which accounted for 70% of the company\u2019s business, will be axed at the end of this year thanks to Trump\u2019s big, beautiful budget. Commercial tax breaks will end in late 2027.<\/p>\n Solar Holler uses panels made in Georgia, yet Trump\u2019s tariffs and other trade restrictions have caused supply chain delays and pushed up raw material prices across the board, as well as almost doubling the cost of solar energy on the market. The company\u2019s forecast for 2026 is down from 30% to \u201croughly flat\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cThe massive increase in costs ends up being passed down to customers,\u201d said Dan Conant, founder and CEO of Solar Holler. \u201cThe IRA rollbacks are obviously disappointing but that said, no matter how hard you make it on the ground for people, solar is the cheapest form of power on the planet so it\u2019s going to happen one way or the other.\u201d<\/p>\n A<\/span>ppalachian Voices (AV) is a non-profit working with local communities \u2013 and in Washington \u2013 on securing a just energy transition. In 2023, AV, which is part of the broader coalition with Coalfield Development, was awarded a half-million-dollar EPA grant to help five former coal communities in Virginia increasingly being hit by severe floods thanks to the climate crisis and the environmental legacy of mining.<\/p>\n The grant was among those summarily terminated by Doge. It remains the subject of class action litigation brought by 350 groups, tribes and local governments who claim the wholesale termination of the $3bn environmental justice and climate program is unconstitutional.<\/p>\n In Lee county, where 85% of people voted for Trump and almost half rely on food stamps, AV had earmarked $40,000 for an asbestos survey in Pennington Gap. This was among a stack of grants secured by the community to demolish a derelict supermarket \u2013 a concrete asbestos-ridden eyesore that frequently floods and cuts off neighborhoods from the main town \u2013 to create a green space that would mitigate against future flooding.<\/p>\n For small communities such as Pennington Gap, securing funding for revitalization projects is like a game of Jenga, and removing just one or two pieces can make the whole stack collapse, according to Emma Kelly, AV\u2019s New Economy program manager.<\/p>\n \u201cPeople in Appalachia are used to being let down by the government, but this time we had the money. It was still taken away, and people feel betrayed.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/span>A view of the town center in Pennington Gap, Virginia, in this 2016 photo.<\/span> Photograph: Thomas Cordy\/Alamy<\/p>\n A Department of Energy grant that the community hoped to use to install rooftop solar on public buildings that would save $400 or so in monthly energy bills \u2013 a reliable income source that could be reinvested in sustainability projects such as communal fruit trees and electric bikes was also cut.<\/p>\n \u201cRegardless of who\u2019s in power, there\u2019s a lot of finger-pointing, while life gets worse for the common people and the oligarch class keep winning,\u201d said Orville Overton, 34, a local business owner and member of the residents\u2019 council. \u201cI don\u2019t think people know who or what to trust, because both [political] parties have failed us in big ways.\u201d<\/p>\n About 60 miles east, Dante, a sparsely populated former integrated mining community that was once the second largest in Russell county, suffers frequent power outages \u2013 including a four-day blackout during a major flood in July, and nine days after Hurricane Helene in August 2024.<\/p>\n Dante\u2019s share of the terminated EPA grant was tagged for a feasibility study on the old railway depot, once the hub of mining operations and the whole town. This is the first step needed to convert the depot into a resilience hub with solar panels and battery storage, a place for residents to charge their phones and keep medication refrigerated during the next blackout.<\/p>\n The post office has been closed since July, due to flood damage. The only place still open for business in Dante is the volunteer-run mining museum.<\/p>\n Dante is also currently without a fire station, after nearly $400,000 appropriated by Congress to replace the one demolished due to subsidence was rescinded by the Trump administration.<\/p>\n <\/span>Flooding in Dante, Virginia in July 2025. Dante is currently without a fire station after nearly $400,000 appropriated by Congress to replace the one demolished due to subsidence, was rescinded by the Trump administration.<\/span> Photograph: Cleveland Lifesaving Crew<\/p>\n \u201cThese are not frivolous things: these are basic services. And when you work hard for two or three years to secure federal funds, you expect it to be delivered,\u201d said Lou Ann Wallace, Dante\u2019s representative on the Republican-controlled Russell county board of supervisors.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t think the president knew. I\u2019m one of his biggest supporters, but we\u2019re dealing with the ills of industry here, and we\u2019ve got to be able to clean this up so our people in these hollers can have a quality of life.\u201d<\/p>\n Trump won 83% of the vote in Russell county in 2024 while Winsome Earle-Sears, the Republican candidate for governor, secured 81% last month.<\/p>\n Taylor Rogers, a White House spokeswoman, said: \u201cPresident Trump cares about our miners more than any other president in modern history \u2013 which is why he has implemented his energy dominance agenda to protect their jobs and revive the mining industry \u2026 we can maintain the safety of miners while simultaneously rolling back Joe Biden\u2019s Green New Scam regulations that were killing their jobs.\u201d<\/p>\n Across Appalachia, people who believe in Trump will be hit hard by his wholesale cuts to Medicaid, veterans affairs, food aid, and education among other public services. Simultaneously, the region is scrambling to save projects that would improve resilience and bring jobs.<\/p>\n <\/span>A mural on a building, recognizing coal\u2019s history in Dante, Virginia. <\/span> Photograph: James Talalay\/Alamy<\/p>\n It\u2019s a race against the clock, according to Hannah, to find enough money to keep afloat and help people keep faith.<\/p>\n \u201cThe funding was committed by Congress, so we know the law\u2019s on our side, and that we will eventually win back some of these grants,\u201d Hannah said. \u201cOne objective was probably to remove confidence in the system, so we need to outlast what is a game of cash flow and the battle of morale.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" For a moment, Jacob Hannah saw an unprecedented opportunity to make Appalachia great again. In 2022, the Biden administration earmarked billions of dollars to help revitalize and strengthen former coal communities. 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