by Kiley Bense | Jan 17, 2026 | Coal, Coal Mining, Congress, Fires, Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, Land reclamation, News, Pennsylvania, Pollution, West Virginia
When the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act was signed into law in 2021, authorizing more than $11 billion in new funding to reclaim lands and waterways damaged by abandoned coal mines, the people who lead this work on the ground were ecstatic. “We were to the moon,” said Amanda Pitzer, the executive director at Friends of the Cheat, a nonprofit organization in West Virginia that works…
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by Nayanika Guha | Dec 24, 2025 | Black Lung, Coal, Coal Miners, Coal Mining, Donald Trump, Fossil Fuels, Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA), News, Trump Administration, Workplace Safety
James Bounds has been working in the mines since 1969. Now 78, and living in Fayette County, West Virginia, he was first diagnosed with black lung in 1984. He was told to quit working at the mines, but he didn’t. He continued working until 2003, when he was permanently disabled with black lung. “I had so many obligations at that time that I couldn’t quit the mines,” he said.
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