Joint blog post by Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker and Labor Secretary Thomas E. Perez

A dramatic transformation in our energy economy is driving fundamental changes in the way we power our homes, offices, factories and communities. This means cleaner air, healthier communities, and new jobs and industries that didn’t exist two decades ago.  But it’s also having a profound impact on workers, families and communities who have relied on the coal industry as a source of good jobs and economic security. There are many reasons for this transformation in energy – and there has been vigorous, impassioned debate about those reasons. But debates don’t put food on the table. Solutions do.

So, how can government - at all levels – partner with the private sector and civil society to help communities diversify their economies?

In Eastern Kentucky, a bipartisan collaboration between Governor Steve Beshear and Congressman Hal Rogers called Shaping Our Appalachian Region or SOAR is showing one path forward. Wary of yet another task force or commission, the pair instead brought the entire community together to “reassess its current challenges, and discuss ideas or innovations already underway which could be leveraged or aligned to capture emergent regional development opportunities.”

They understood that solving these challenges meant bringing everyone to the same table -- government, the business community, workforce investment boards, colleges, unions, financial institutions and more. It means putting parochialism and turf battles aside, everyone sharing information and together building a whole even greater than the sum of the parts. 

These partnerships succeed at the regional level, and we need to adopt them at the national level. That’s because there’s no such thing as Department of Labor challenges, or Department of Commerce challenges, or Commonwealth of Kentucky challenges.  These are America’s challenges, and we must solve them together. 

Building a dynamic 21^st century economy across Eastern Kentucky and around the country requires investments in physical infrastructure like roads, bridges, and broadband to attract new industries, but it also means building our human infrastructure to strengthen the skills and talents of those who need a new opportunity.

No matter how tough and determined a community is to get back on their feet, doing so requires resources. That’s why this March, the Obama Administration launched the Partnerships for Opportunity and Workforce and Economic Revitalization or POWER initiative.

POWER is a coordinated multi-agency effort to help workers and communities that have been adversely impacted by changes in the coal industry and power sector.

We are excited to announce that our departments of Labor and Commerce, along with our partners at the Small Business Administration and the Appalachian Regional Commission, are making up to $35.5 million available to implement the goals of POWER initiative.

We’re making these grants available to regional partnerships to help coal communities: (1) diversify their economies; (2) create jobs in new or existing industries; (3) attract new sources of job-creating investment; (4) and provide a range of workforce services and skills training, including work-based learning opportunities, resulting in industry-recognized credentials for high-quality, in-demand jobs.

We’re making these funds available because we know there’s a better future for these communities. We’re betting on their resilience, and we’re putting real skin in the game to help them weather the storm.  

We don’t kick people to the curb in this country.  We don’t write off entire communities, whether in Detroit or in Appalachia. We don’t tell folks who have been knocked down “Hey, sorry you’re on your own.”  What makes our nation strong is a belief that we’re all in this together…that my destiny is connected to yours.  That’s a matter of conscience, a moral imperative.  But it’s more than that.  It isn’t just the right thing to do; it’s the smart thing to do. In a complex and competitive world, more than ever we can’t afford to have people sitting on the sidelines.  We need everyone off the bench and in the game.  America is always strongest when it fields a full team.