[AEP Mountaineer coal-powered electric plant]
Caitlin Ware (interview): “You’re getting $1,300 to $1,500 bills for electric. And West Virginia has decided that they’re gonna run on coal for at least 2040.”
[Anthony Crihfield Jones’ March electric bill for one of his JCD Bargain and Trading business locations]
Anthony Crihfield Jones (interview): “$1,218.67, yeah, for one building.”
[Exterior of JCD Bargain and Trading]
[Customer paying]
[Customer at JCD Bargain and Trading]
Caitlin Ware (interview): “You don’t have a choice when it comes to electric and water. And so, you know, you can’t decide to just not have electric for that month.”
[Power lines in the neighborhood]
[Local businesses]
Caitlin Ware (interview): “We’re seeing businesses lock up, you know, businesses are closing.”
[Local businesses]
Heather Santee (interview): “I try to stay so positive. And look towards the future, you know, and bigger plans. But sometimes it’s just so sad, you know, walking down there, seeing it.”
[Santee walking past local businesses]
[Location of Santee’s former bakery]
[Santee describing her former bakery]
Heather Santee (interview): “I was getting ready, like I had a bunch of stuff made up and everything and was getting ready for Valentine’s Day because holidays were $700 to $1,000 days. So, I would have had the money if I could have just got two days. Just two days.”
[Santee showing a photo of her cupcakes]
[Santee showing her bakery shirt]
[Exterior of Santee’s former bakery]
Heather Santee (interview): “The electric being so high made me struggle on pretty much everything else, but if I could have got a break, like once I got behind last January, because business is slow January and February, but once I go behind, it was like I could not dig out of that hole.”
[Bakery cases now at an antique shop in Ravenswood]
[Exterior of local businesses]
[Ravenswood Arts gallery]
[Philip Moulton wrapping a piece of art]
Philip Moulton (interview): “We just love it here, but the problem is we’re getting really beat up with the high energy costs. This small gallery, I keep the temperature down kind of low, and I’m still paying $700, $800 a month.”
[Ravenswood Arts building with AEP electric and power meters]
[Electric meter]
[Moulton in the art gallery]
Philip Moulton (interview): (Asked, “Your rent for the commercial space here is how much?”) “It’s only $600. $150, $200 less than my power bill.”
Donald Trump (speech): “That is why today I will also declare a national energy emergency. We will drill, baby, drill.”
[President Donald Trump holding an executive order regarding coal during an event]
Caitlin Ware (interview): “I find it fascinating that, you know, they go and they give him a trophy saying he’s the friend of a coal miner. Our coal miners are dying of black lung. They don’t have clean water. They can’t feed their children. Their schools are closing. Their electric bills are through the roof. And they can’t afford groceries. You know, where’s the trophy for us?”
[AEP Mountaineer coal-powered electric plant]
[Coal miner sign at Jones’ business, JCD Bargain and Trading]
[Jones at his local business]
[Trump hats sold at Jones’ local business]
Anthony Crihfield Jones (interview): “You have a gas bill, you have an electricity bill, you have water bill, you have sewer bill. Ok. I can’t afford all that plus pay $2000 a month rent. Your utility bills are more than your rent is.”
[Jones’ employees packing up one of their three locations to close]
[Empty store]
Heather Santee (interview): “Everybody says we need them, you know, we need little bakeries. We need all these little small businesses, but then they’re the ones that get hit the hardest.”
[Santee]
[Local businesses]
This script was provided by The Associated Press.