Biden administration puts $428M into manufacturing projects in coal communities

The Biden administration is putting $428 million into bolstering manufacturing projects in 15 communities whose economies have historically relied on coal plants or mining. 

The funds will go to 14 projects, the administration announced Tuesday. These projects include facilities that will make things like batteries and low-carbon cement, which the administration said will help the climate. 

“These are communities that powered America for literally decades, and this administration, the Biden-Harris administration, believes they’re exactly the right folks in the right communities to lead the clean energy transition for decades to come,” Deputy Energy Secretary David Turk told reporters. 

The administration said the facilities together will support 1,900 jobs.

The funding comes from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. It will go to companies building facilities in states including Kentucky, Texas, Washington, Illinois, Tennessee, Pennsylvania, Michigan, West Virginia and Utah.

Countries including the U.S. are becoming less reliant on coal, in part because of the fuel’s planet-warming emissions and other pollution.

However, as demand for coal wanes, so do jobs in that industry. In many communities around the U.S., coal mining has been a significant component of the economy. 

Last year, the United Mine Workers of America union declined to endorse a presidential candidate, naming issues with both the Biden administration and former President Trump. 

“Nearly two years after the passage of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, we have yet to see a single good-paying union job that has been created for a dislocated coal miner to step into,” union president Cecil Roberts said in a statement at the time.