How many journos who covered Clinton's "gaffe" abt coal miners also covered her extensive plan to h

[riversedge]

Brian Fallon Retweeted
David Roberts ‏@drvox 19h19 hours ago

How many journos who covered Clinton's "gaffe" abt coal miners also covered her extensive plan to help them? https://www.hillaryclinton.com/briefing/factsheets/2015/11/12/clinton-plan-to-revitalize-coal-communities/ …


Factsheets
Hillary Clinton’s Plan for Revitalizing Coal Communities

https://www.hillaryclinton.com/briefing/factsheets/2015/11/12/clinton-plan-to-revitalize-coal-communities/



From Central Appalachia to the Powder River Basin, coal communities were an engine of US economic growth for more than a century. Coal powered the industrial revolution, the 20th century expansion of the middle class, and supplied as much as half of US electricity for decades. The hard-working Americans who mine, move, and generate power from coal put their own health and safety at risk to keep our factories running and deliver the affordable and reliable electricity we take for granted.

But today we are in the midst of a global energy transition. The shale revolution, low-cost renewable energy, energy efficiency improvements, and pressing concerns about the impact of coal combustion on public health and the global climate are reducing coal demand both in the US and around the world. Coal now accounts for only one third of US power generation, with domestic consumption falling by 25% over the past ten years. In China, nuclear and renewable energy are growing three times faster than coal-fired power , with more wind and solar capacity added last year than the US and Europe combined.

Building a 21st century clean energy economy in the United States will create new jobs and industries, deliver important health benefits, and reduce carbon pollution. But we can’t ignore the impact this transition is already having on mining communities, or the threat it poses to the healthcare and retirement security of coalfield workers and their families. This is particularly true in Appalachia, where production has been declining for decades, but impacts are beginning to be felt in the Illinois Basin and Western coalfields as well. And it’s not limited to mining communities: reduced coal shipments impact barge and railroad workers, and power plant closures can contribute to local job loss and economic distress.

Hillary Clinton is committed to meeting the climate change challenge as President and making the United States a clean energy superpower. At the same time, she will not allow coal communities to be left behind—or left out of our economic future. That’s why Clinton announced a $30 billion plan to ensure that coal miners and their families get the benefits they’ve earned and respect they deserve, to invest in economic diversification and job creation, and to make coal communities an engine of US economic growth in the 21st century as they have been for generations.



Honoring Our Commitments

Clinton will ensure that we honor our commitments to the coal miners, transportation and power plant workers, their families and their communities, who have given so much to our country.

Ensure health and retirement security. Weak global coal demand and a sharp drop in global coal prices have pushed a number of mining companies into bankruptcy. Clinton has fought, and will continue to fight, against attempts by these companies to use bankruptcy proceedings to shirk the healthcare and pension commitments they’ve made to their retirees, many of whom suffer from black lung disease and other job-related illnesses. As part of this promise, Clinton will put in place a federal backstop that ensures retirees get the benefits they have earned and deserve, building on the bipartisan leadership of Senators Manchin, Capito, Casey and Brown, and will expand these protections to any power plant or transportation company retiree who loses his or her benefits due to a coal market-related bankruptcy.
Reform the black lung benefit program. Clinton supports sweeping reforms to the federal black lung benefit program to prevent coal company-funded doctors and lawyers from withholding evidence or willfully misdiagnosing patients in order to deny medical care to sick miners. She will empower those who have been wrongfully denied benefits to reopen their cases, help miners secure legal representation, and adjust black lung benefits to reflect cost of living changes.
Safeguard funding for local schools. Coal mining and power plants are a major source of public school revenue in many coal communities, and a decline in coal production or a power plant closure can leave local school districts with a significant funding gap. To address this, Clinton will establish the Secure Coal Community Schools (SCCS) program. Similar to the Secure Rural Schools program that helped offset lost local revenue from a decline in timber sales on federal lands, the SCCS will mitigate declines in coal-related revenue until alternative sources of local tax revenue arise through economic growth.

Investing for the Future

Coal is not the only resource mining and power plant communities possess. From Appalachia to the Uinta Basin, coal communities have rich human and cultural capital, diverse natural resources, and enormous economic potential. Clinton will partner with the local entrepreneurs, community leaders, foundations and labor groups working to unleash that potential, making federal investments that help people to find good jobs without having to move and build a strong, diversified economic future.

Build infrastructure for the 21st century. The infrastructure in coal communities today was built to mine, ship, and burn coal. Unlocking new drivers of economic and employment growth in these communities will require new infrastructure that connects workers to new jobs and companies to new markets. Clinton’s infrastructure investment program will include a focus on economic diversification and revitalization in coal communities, building new roads, bridges, water systems, airports and transmission lines, including completion of the Appalachian Development Highway System. She will also work with the Department of Transportation and the railroad companies to develop a strategy for leveraging available rail capacity previously used to ship coal to support broader economic development in coal-producing regions.


Repurpose mine lands and power plant sites. With rich soil and abundant water, abandoned coal mines can provide prime real estate for new investment – whether in forestry, agriculture, or manufacturing. But significant remediation, site preparation, and infrastructure development is often required before this land can be successfully repurposed for new economic activity. Clinton will unlock existing unappropriated resources from the Abandoned Mine Reclamation Fund to help finance this work. Clinton will provide similar support for redevelopment of retired coal power plant sites to attract new investment, such as Google’s plans to build a data center on the site of a recently closed coal plant in Alabama. ................lots more.............

[Thinkingabout]

1. Oh, those pesky facts, truth and facts, they are hard to beat.

[kennetha]

2. Journalists are mostly idiots!

[riversedge]

4. Lazy idiots

[pandr32]

11. Sounds about right!

Job description likely includes: must not think outside the box.

[BlueMTexpat]

3. This is exactly how they promote

Hill's "untrustworthiness" - by telling only the parts of the story that look worst for her. It's rarely ever the whole story. Even if, they skew the facts to provide the worst interpretation.

And there are too many on DU who gleefully perpetuate the slurs.

[riversedge]

5. and I see

Sanders fans on twitter are picking up the soundbite--coal miners will lose their jobs says Hillary. who needs Republicans???

[BlueMTexpat]

6. Such "progressive" behavior ...

Not!

[kennetha]

8. a lot of them suffer from the same affliction as many journalists

[pandr32]

12. There should never be an "agenda" for reporters and journalists

This is not what freedom of the press is about.

[Haveadream]

7. Growing up surrounded by rural poverty

I deeply appreciated her words to the coal miners. The fact that there are those who misconstrued it says volumes about how out of touch some truly are. It also reminds me of Senator Sanders comments about putting the trucking industry out of business. These are the very people he claims to be representing. Fighting "Wall Street", "free college" and a different insurance plan won't help if Bernie takes away their jobs. The fact that there are those applauding such measures is extremely scary to many who depend on that work for their survival.

[radical noodle]

9. Did they also cover Sanders' "gaffe"

about taking trucks off the road?

[greymattermom]

10. the education in many of those coal communities is not up to

folks being able to do these jobs. Just a consideration.

[Hekate]

14. That observation will lead you straight to her plans for .... Education. She's got that, too. nt

[Hekate]

13. KnR