Deeply Demoralizing: How Early Rollbacks Halted Appalachia’s Clean‑Energy Comeback

For a brief window in 2022, Jacob Hannah saw a rare opportunity to rebuild parts of Appalachia. The Biden administration’s Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) committed billions to help former coal communities transition from extraction industries to renewable energy and advanced manufacturing, creating a once-in-a-generation chance to boost long-term economic, climate and social resilience in the region.

Momentum, then a sudden reversal

Hannah, 33, who leads Coalfield Development — a Huntington, West Virginia–based nonprofit focused on workforce training, job creation and the reclamation of abandoned buildings and mined land — describes that funding as catalytic. Over 15 years Coalfield has trained more than 4,000 people, including many formerly incarcerated people and those in recovery, in trades ranging from solar installation to drywall and first aid.

Coalfield and a regional coalition of universities, unions, nonprofits, businesses and local governments helped communities tap roughly $900 million of IRA investment by building collective infrastructure and capacity. Projects were ready to break ground when a wave of early administration rollbacks and a newly created office — nicknamed "Doge" by critics — paused or canceled many grants, including a $3 billion Environmental and Climate Justice program created by the IRA. Some awards were later reinstated, but with long delays and litigation; staffing changes at federal agencies further slowed disbursements.

Local impacts: stalled projects and lost opportunities

The effects are visible across coal country. In Huntington, a multimillion-dollar redevelopment of the Black Diamond warehouse — planned as a hub for sustainable industries and training — stalled after grant suspensions and delayed reimbursements left the project in limbo. Coalfield is waiting on nearly $3 million in overdue reimbursements.

Six EPA grants tied to a planned social enterprise called Reuse Corridor — which would salvage and repurpose mattresses, electronics and other materials dumped in the Ohio River — were cut, effectively canceling the business and the jobs it would have created. Solar Holler, a regional solar installer with 105 employees, saw its growth forecast for 2026 drop from roughly 30% to flat as tax incentives for residential solar are scheduled to expire and new tariffs and trade restrictions have disrupted supply chains and pushed up costs.

"It was a once-in-a-generation cash injection designed to prioritize extraction-based communities as part of the energy transition. To have it all taken away is deeply damaging and demoralizing," said Hannah.

Small towns feel the knock-on effects

Appalachian Voices (AV), a nonprofit working on a just transition, had a $500,000 EPA award terminated. In Lee County, Virginia, AV had earmarked $40,000 for an asbestos survey in Pennington Gap to enable demolition of an asbestos‑ridden supermarket that frequently floods; the survey was part of a package intended to replace the structure with green space to reduce flood risk. A Department of Energy grant that would have funded rooftop solar on public buildings — saving an estimated $400 per month that could be reinvested locally — was also cut.

In Dante, a former mining town in Russell County, a terminated EPA grant had been destined to fund a feasibility study for converting an old rail depot into a resilience hub with solar panels and battery storage to support residents during frequent blackouts. Congressional appropriations to replace a demolished fire station were rescinded, leaving the community without basic services.

Residents and local leaders describe growing mistrust in government — a long-standing sentiment often called Appalachian fatalism — and frustration that projects developed over years unraveled quickly. Many affected communities overwhelmingly supported the administration responsible for the rollbacks, complicating local political dynamics.

Legal and financial responses

Some groups have filed lawsuits challenging the cancellations of IRA-funded programs, arguing the rollbacks are unlawful. Meanwhile, nonprofits and local leaders are scrambling to raise philanthropic and private capital to bridge funding gaps and keep projects and training programs afloat while litigation and political pressure play out.

"The funding was committed by Congress, so we know the law’s on our side, and that we will eventually win back some of these grants," Hannah said. "One objective appears to have been to undermine confidence in the system. To protect communities, we need to outlast what has become both a cash‑flow battle and a test of morale."

Key figures quoted: Jacob Hannah (Coalfield Development), Dan Conant (Solar Holler), Emma Kelly (Appalachian Voices), Lou Ann Wallace (Russell County official), Orville Overton (local entrepreneur), and a White House spokeswoman, Taylor Rogers, who defended the administration’s energy agenda.