...if anything, I think the coal export terminals run under the radar of the local community. The people who live close to the terminals are too poor and lack enough power to do much about them, and the terminals are basically ignored by everyone else. There's also a lot of other port traffic in Hampton Roads, including shipping containers and vehicle carriers as well as a lot of military vessels, and that accounts for more traffic and far more revenue than the coal terminals. If anything, Hampton Roads is known for its military bases (all branches of the military) and ship building.

The thing about coal is it's still very cheap and so is responsible for very small amounts of revenue given its enormous environmental footprint. Oil produces over ten times the revenue per unit energy than thermal coal (and generally has lower economic footprint per unit energy since it's more gravimetrically energy dense and has lower ash and carbon content per unit mass) so is more economically important for a given environmental cost.

Additionally, what's odd about these facilities is they're for metallurgical coal exports, meaning they're contributing to the off-shoring of the US steel industry.