President Obama released his proposed budget today, and for the first time, the plan includes direct funding to help coal communities transition away from economies based on fossil fuels.
The “Power Plus Plan” is specifically designed to help workers and communities—particularly in Appalachia—that have become casualties of the nation’s shift away from coal.
It includes $20 million for re-employment, training, and support for workers who have been laid off from coal mines and coal-fired power plants, legislative reform to strengthen health care and pension plans for union coal miners and extra money for brownfields remediation in towns with retired power plants.
The proposal was greeted with enthusiasm by state groups working to transition Eastern Kentucky’s economy away from coal, but Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s response was lukewarm. In a statement, he said he’d seriously consider any measures to help suffering coalfields communities, but the best way to help them is to prevent what he called “anti-coal” regulations in the first place. McConnell also announced he joined the Senate subcommittee charged with overseeing EPA spending.
