Ohio’s Miners Seek A Life After Coal As Industry Loses Steam in Appalachia

STEUBENVILLE, Ohio — Danny Hepburn hops into the cab of a rumbling white semi-truck, the words “Student Driver” emblazoned on the back in black block letters. An instructor rattles off the list of switches and gauges to review before Hepburn steers the beastly vehicle around a snow-covered parking lot. Hepburn, who was laid off twice last year at a nearby coal mine, is here to learn the trucking trade.

“I’ve got to go do something else,” he says. “The way the coal industry is, I don’t know if I’ll ever go back.”