Building Worker and Community-focused Economic Transitions in Coal Country

By Heidi Binko - Rural Urban Bridge Initiative, August 3, 2023

As Executive Director of the Just Transition Fund, Heidi Binko has helped facilitate and support dozens of successful efforts to build more just and sustainable economies in regions historically dependent upon the coal industry for a major portion of their jobs and economy. From Appalachia to the Navaho Nation to the Powder River Basin of Wyoming and Montana, community organizations and local businesses are building new economies based upon clean energy, sustainable farming and forestry, energy conservation and green construction and many other enterprises. Nearly twenty of these local leaders worked with the Just Transition Fund in 2021 and 2022 to develop the National Economic Transition (NET) platform, portions of which have been adopted or supported by the Biden Administration. Heidi will discuss the NET, some examples of successful economic transition in coal regions, and the process of building political support for this critical work.

Heidi, the co-founder and executive director of the Just Transition Fund, brings her expertise and leadership to shape the organization's design and drive its strategic direction. With a philanthropic career spanning over 17 years, focused on climate, coal, and energy issues, she has dedicated her efforts to supporting coal communities both domestically in the US and internationally in Australia. Since the Just Transition Fund's founding in 2015, Heidi has played a crucial role in enabling communities across the United States to access federal funds and navigate the transition towards a sustainable future.

Disclaimer: The views expressed here are not the official position of the IWW (or even the IWW’s EUC) and do not necessarily represent the views of anyone but the author.