A group of coal miners in West Virginia banded together to rescue a stranded couple after their electric car broke down in the middle of the road, according to reports.
The incident occurred on Friday when the couple’s car broke down in front of Mettiki Coal access road on U.S. 48. Luckily, one of the miners spotted and notified the company foreman.
An electric car breaks down in West Virginia and coal miners push it up the road to the mine to recharge.
— Riley Moore (@RileyMooreWV) September 4, 2022
Friendly reminder that electric cars don’t exist without coal. pic.twitter.com/UORbfQ2HnO
“Someone called one of our foreman and told him a car was broke down in the middle of our haul road,” wrote state Sen. Randy Smith, who shared the incident in a Facebook post.
Since the electric vehicle had plastic underneath, it could not be towed, so the group of miners decided to help the couple by pushing the vehicle to the mine to charge up.
“So here are 5 coal miners pushing a battery car to the coal mine to charge up,” added Smith.
The Republican senator said that one of the coal miners dropped off a “Friend of Coal” license plate to the couple before going home.
“This just shows you coal miners are good people and will go out of their way to help anyone friend or foe,” Smith said. “I’m honestly glad they ended up here where they could get some help because they couldn’t get a tow truck and this is out in the middle of nowhere.”
This comes in the wake of disputes over pushing towards alternative energy sources such as electricity. According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, coal accounts for approximately 21 percent of all electricity generated in the U.S., including power used to charge electric vehicles.
In California, lawmakers earlier this month moved to require all new vehicles in the state to run on electricity by 2035 in the hopes of cutting emissions from cars in half by 2040.
Residents in California can keep driving and buying gas-powered vehicles after 2035, but no new models will be sold in the state thereafter.
Despite the state’s push for electric vehicles, however, many electric vehicle manufacturers have laid off a large chunk of their workforce due to supply-chain issues.
Rivian Automotive Inc., for example, announced recently its plans to lay off hundreds of employees. Small electric vehicle company Lucid is also slashing its production forecast for 2022 after reporting a $220 million loss on revenue.
