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In Greene County, Indiana, plans call for repurposing buildings to create craft spirits from grains grown on 22 acres of surrounding agricultural land. Former coal miners will run the operation.

The developers behind a proposed 850-megawatt power plant at Sandersville that has been on the drawing board for years wanted more time to think about, but the state said no.

“Why are people like Collett so worried about their husbands amid COVID-19? It's because many of the men already have compromised respiratory systems.” One in five have black lung disease.

Coal executives have shown little interest in the disaster’s lasting effects: “There is more hopelessness, [with] more despair and more drugs than ever before. No new legislation got passed. Nothing.”

It would make more sense to retire two aging, money-losing plants and to encourage development of renewable resources and provide support to local governments and laid-off workers, writes the author.

The author, a former U.S. energy secretary, calls for “a network of private, public and union- supported apprenticeship and training programs that directly address the need for an expanded energy workforce.”

As investors and corporations double down on newer power-generation models and on momentum around transition, industry analysts see coal losing more market share in the short and long term alike.

A Scottish company is using mine shafts for gravity-generated power, a former site in New York is now an underground-vault business, and an Australian pumped-storage hydro project is under way.

“Declining electricity demand has put enormous pressure on companies without strong balance sheets. And with capital markets turning away from the industry, it’s unclear how many coal firms can survive.”

Work advances on a major East Coast infrastructure project to turn the former Brayton Point Power Station site in Massachusetts into a supply-chain hub for offshore wind-farm construction and maintenance.