Bill to increase black lung benefits gets bipartisan local support, faces uphill climb in Congress

Black lung disease, as depicted in the above 

X-ray photo, has affected thousands of coal miners. 

Efforts to increase those benefits have been ongoing 

but have thus far failed. (Photo courtesy of Unsplash.com)

Efforts to increase benefits to coal miners suffering from pneumoconiosis, commonly known as “black lung disease,” have stalled in Congress despite bipartisan support at the local level across coal-producing states. Liam Niemeyer reports in the Kentucky Lantern that “dozens of county and city governments — comprised of both Republicans and Democratic leaders — across multiple Appalachian states have passed resolutions to urge an increase in benefits to support the approximately 25,000 recipients of black lung disability benefits.”

The Save Our Miners Act was introduced June 30. The Lantern story notes that it “would seek to increase benefits all the way back to the same funding level, relative to inflation, as miners received in 1969.” The average monthly benefit in 2026 is $794 or about two thirds of what the check would have been in 1970, adjusted for inflation. But while local officials from both parties sound the alarm, partisan ideologies on Capitol Hill have prevented change.

The trust fund pays miners when coal companies deemed responsible can’t be identified or have gone out of business. The revenue comes from a tax on mined coal. “That fund has taken on hundreds of millions of benefit liabilities because of coal mine bankruptcies, a larger trend seen with the rapid decline in the state’s coal mining industry,” Niemeyer reports.

Republicans are hesitant to support the increased spending, citing concerns about the solvency of the fund, and they accuse Democrats of waging a war on coal companies who pay into the fund. Democrats say their proposals would require only modest investment to provide the needed benefit increases.

The Save Our Miners Act is sponsored by Rep. Summer Lee (D-PA) and co-sponsored by Rep. Chris DeLuzio (D-PA) and Rep. Morgan McGarvey (D-KY). It goes next to the House Education and Workforce Committee.

Rural towns provide land, workforce and a unique energy supply to support a new type of nuclear power plant

The Natrium facility divides nuclear and nonnuclear sections of the plant, which leads to more
reliable energy output at lower cost. (TerraPower design graphic)

TerraPower plans to build smaller nuclear power plants in declining coal towns across the U.S., and it needs land, a reliable workforce, and a uniquely enriched uranium to get the job done. Rural towns more than 1,500 miles apart will provide all three for the first reactor.

Kemmerer, Wyoming, is providing the site, many of the workers, and infrastructure supports for TerraPower's first power plant, called Natrium, which recently became "the first new commercial reactor to receive federal approval in nearly a decade," reports Brad Plumer for The New York Times.

The federal permit allows the company to begin construction on Natrium's nuclear components. "The company had already broken ground on the site in 2024 and had begun building the non-nuclear parts of the plant," Plumer explains. Natrium is slated to go online in 2031, just a couple of years before the town's coal plant is expected to be retired.

The plant's designs are novel and will allow smaller, less expensive reactors to be built; however, when the company broke ground on its Kemmerer plant, it didn't have an American supplier for the reactor's unique enriched Uranium known as HALEU.

At the time, only Russia was making HALEU. As TerraPower searched for a solution, a uranium enrichment facility in the rural town of Piketon, Ohio, said it could step up to produce HALEU before the reactor went online.

TerraPower is now "partnering through a memorandum of understanding with Centrus, a company in Ohio, that will likely be the first in the U.S. to make the fuel on a commercial scale," reports of Caitlin Tan of Wyoming Public Radio. 

The 'War on Poverty' failed to help McDowell County, W. Va. They've decided they're on their own.

The once bustling streets of McDowell County today are empty. The county's only Walmart closed down in 2016. (Photo sources James Williams, 2020, Bluefield Daily Telegraph, 2016, and Jamie in Wanderland, 2018 via William Vermillion)

The U.S. War on Poverty was launched more than 60 years ago as a social and humanitarian-driven initiative to address extreme poverty in regions like Appalachia. But for residents in McDowell County, W. Va., where the federal government "poured more than $3.6 billion into trying to ease hardship. … It hasn't worked," reports Dan Frosch of The Wall Street Journal. "Some two-thirds of households with children still get food stamps, among the nation’s highest rates."

McDowell residents have watched their once-vibrant coal town's population shrivel "from just over 51,000 to roughly 17,000," Frosch writes. "With little faith left in government to break the cycle of poverty, those who remain say it’s up to them to forge a brighter economic path."

While the billions in federal dollars couldn't replace the jobs and money the coal companies provided, new resources and a keen eye for a plan B have become part of McDowell's revival. Frosch explains: "A network of nonprofits has sprung up. Many are funded with federal grants and private donations and run by locals. Most have had to figure out how to keep going when government money runs out."

Often considered a food desert, some McDowell residents are learning mountain farming from their neighbors, Jason Tartt and Amelia Bandy, who "began transforming a 350-acre plot into a teaching farm," Frosch reports. "Tartt, Bandy and a shoestring staff have trained some 60 people on farming the mountain valleys."

Location of McDowell County in part of 
Appalachia (Earthstar Geographics, Esri, map)

Mavis Brewster, who heads the McDowell County Public Service District, has "spent the past two decades working to get clean water to as many people as she can with few resources," Frosch adds. "She spends her days jigsawing state and federal funding sources for new water systems."

Stacy Henderson is working for the nonprofit converting the area's old Walmart store into a new factory. She told Frosch, "There’s been this helicopter approach where people come in and tell the community, ‘This is what we’re going to do.' This project is being worked on from within.”

"Their efforts are small in comparison to the government programs that have sought to revive McDowell County," Frosch adds. "But they are spurring hope for renewal in some places, driven by one of the few constants here: resilience."

Miners with black lung disease push back against the Trump administration's failure to enforce new silica rule

Silica dust is present in all extracted coal.
(Adobe Stock photo)

Coal miners hoped that President Donald Trump would help secure health care safety protections for miners suffering from black lung disease and usher in an era where new U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration silica limits would be enforced. But some mining communities in Appalachia and the West have been angery and disappointed because they believe the administration's actions favor mining operator profits over worker safety.

A rule approved last year by the MSHA Administration would "cut the federal limit for allowable respirable crystalline silica dust exposure by half to help protect miners of all types nationwide from the current driving force of black lung and other illnesses," reports Margie Mason of The Associated Press.

Many mining community members who voted for Trump in his 2024 campaign believed he would protect mine workers from mine owners who opposed the silica rule and sued to delay its enforcement. But that is not the stance the Trump administration has taken.

The new rule is now "in jeopardy amid other Trump administration cutbacks and proposals targeting workers’ health and safety guardrails," Mason explains. "Some angry retired miners with black lung are fighting back, demanding that Trump honor promises he made to the people who voted him in."

Even as the Trump administration maintains that the president puts miners' health first, GOP cuts to agencies that oversee mine safety have left far fewer experts to inspect and enforce current rules.

"In addition, the Labor Department has proposed altering some mining regulations to weaken the authority of district mine health and safety managers that could impact ventilation, roof prevention and training programs," Mason adds. "The White House and the Labor Department insisted the administration can maintain miners’ health and safety while rolling back regulations."