Coal Redevelopment

There is no one best way to shutter and redevelop a coal plant. However, some ways are better than others. 

This chart shows the sweet spot for redevelopment – where private sector interests coincide with community desires.  That is where sustainable development can happen.

Highest and best use is a concept used in appraising properties for value.  The Appraisal Institute defines highest and best use as follows:

“The reasonably probable and legal use of vacant land or an improved property that is physically possible, appropriately supported, financially feasible, and that results in the highest value.”

There are four key tests for determining highest and best use, which is the basis for a property appraisal. A developer must, at the minimum, determine, if the proposed the use is:

1. Physically possible, 
2. Legally permissible, 
3. Financially feasible, and 
4. Maximally productive. 

While all proposed uses must be physically possible, legally permissible, and financially feasible, there can be differences of opinion on “maximally productive.”  Maximal productive use for a business may not be the same as for a community for reasons of job quality, stability, environment, or other concerns. 

A community may value manufacturing or warehousing use, which creates stable jobs with living wages. An artificial intelligence use, on the other hand, may provide higher remuneration to the owner (in other words, the buyer may be willing to pay more because of valuable electric connections) but create far fewer jobs than other uses.  A community can express its version of the highest and best use in a community plan derived via a bottom-up community visioning process (See our ReImagine Your Community Visioning Process).  Many federal incentives require community support. To get a federal grant, the federal government should require applicants to demonstrate their proposed project helps to implement what the community has already indicated it desires, as stated in its community visioning plan.  

Factors to be considered in visioning what a community wants and needs – and/or does not want – may include:

• Will the use be sustainable (or, will it depend on resource extraction, which, like coal, ends when the resource is exhausted)?
• Will the use be a factory whose headquarters could quickly move to a different location or nation?
• How many jobs will it create?  What are the tax revenue implications of the proposed use?
• Will the use rely on materials and production inputs that are sustainable over time and abundant in the region – in other words, not likely to run out? Are materials suitable for circular manufacturing?
• Will the use mitigate pollution, like cleaning acid mine drainage or turning coal ash from toxic ponds into marketable materials like green building products?
• Is the use climate-friendly and likely to contribute to the new energy economy?
• Will the use receive substantial federal support because it generates renewable energy or the products needed to generate renewable energy or promote energy efficiency?
• Is the use likely to serve local businesses or purchase products and services from them?
• Are there safety concerns with the proposed use?

These are the overarching goals of ReImagine Appalachia when it comes to redevelopment.

1. Expand opportunity through public investments:

• Maximize good union jobs.
• Target fossil fuel workers with genuine opportunities doing the work.
• Build career pathways into union jobs for Black, Indigenous, women and low-wage workers.

2. Build a 21st-Century sustainable Appalachia:

• Ensure community benefits from federal investments via public input and community oversight.
• Restore damaged lands and waters.
• Modernize the electric grid: Decentralize generation, increase use of clean energy and expand broadband.
• Grow manufacturing by making it cleaner and more efficient while also making Appalachia a hub for electric vehicle production and alternatives to single-use plastic.

3. Rebuild the middle class:

• Build a sustainable transportation system and create new jobs for transit workers.
• Revive the Civilian Conservation Corps: Reforest the region, restore wetlands, promote regenerative agriculture and eco-tourism while simultaneously absorbing greenhouse gassesgases with natural landscapes.
• Promote union rights, better pay, benefits and local ownership models for working people across all industries in the region.