A federal judge has dismissed the bankruptcy case of an Eastern Kentucky coal operator, leaving a lawsuit by hundreds of workers unresolved.
About 300 former employees sued in March, seeking to recover 60 days of wages and benefits they say Clintwood JOD LLC should have paid them under federal labor law.
The Workers Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act requires large employers to give 60 days notice before terminating workers. Clintwood’s employees say they received no such notification.
The company filed for bankruptcy in March as coal producers throughout Appalachia downsized operations amid weakness in international coal markets.
Clintwood’s assets were sold at auction last month for $1.1 million. A company representative said in a motion to dismiss the case there was nothing left to satisfy the workers’ claims.
U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Gregory Schaaf said his court no longer has jurisdiction over the lawsuit, but Clintwood still needs to file a motion to dismiss the case.
Kentucky coal jobs have been in steady decline for years. At the end of June, there were fewer than 3,400 coal workers statewide, and fewer than 2,000 in Eastern Kentucky.
In the first quarter of 2009, Kentucky had 19,000 coal workers statewide. Natural gas produced from hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, toppled coal from its dominant role in electricity production.
More recently, wind, solar and battery storage have eaten into coal’s remaining market share. In May, solar alone surpassed coal in U.S. electricity production for the first time.
President Donald Trump returned to office with aggressive interventions designed to boost coal production and jobs. The U.S. Department of Energy has canceled the retirement of coal plants and made hundreds of millions of dollars available to upgrade others, including some in Kentucky.
The U.S Environmental Protection Agency rolled back power plant emissions rules. Last year, Congress repealed tax credits for wind and solar as part of Trump’s signature tax bill.
Despite those efforts, the use of coal to generate electricity declined every month this year from January to May. Railroads reported lower volumes of coal shipped to power plants in the second quarter.
The U.S. Energy Information Administration forecasts coal will continue to decline heading into 2027.
