Environmental concerns beginning in the previous era continued having negative effects on the demand for coal. This along with a decrease in demand from overseas and the new extraction technique for natural gas commonly referred to as “fracking” placed the coal industry under increased financial pressure. These pressures caused the industry to go through a series of buying binges followed by bankruptcies that left miners with uncertain futures. These changes along with an overall weakening of unions within the state and national political shifts resulted in significant changing locally from a traditionally “blue,” Democratic state to a “red,” Republican state as seen in the national and state elections results late in the era.
