One More Time: No Obama-Led "War On Coal"; Trump Can't & Won't Save Coal
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In 2011, US coal was riding high, recovering from the recession and planning enormous expansion. Then between 2011 and 2016, it absolutely cratered. US coal production dropped by 27 percent. Domestic demand fell 30 percent. Demand for exports dried up.
The combined market value of the country’s four big coal companies dropped from $33 billion to $150 million (yes, you read that right). Three of the four declared bankruptcy, in the process shedding hundreds of millions in retiree pension and health care obligations. Some 120,000 retired miners and dependents are now at risk of losing what they have left. And more than 58,000 coal miners and contractors lost their jobs, the latest chapter in the long decline in US coal mining employment.
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Trump’s budget would slash funding for many of the existing federal programs that help Appalachia, most notably the Appalachian Regional Commission and the Economic Development Administration. Those are just a few of many proposed budget cuts that would hurt coal communities and workers. Spending has to be cut to make way for an enormous tax cut for corporations and the wealthy. And thus far, Trump has been publicly silent about the threat to miner pensions, though he’s assured Manchin in private that he intends to speak up about it, and he usually keeps his promises, so that’s all good.
The GOP’s loyalty to coal communities seems to extend exactly as far as rolling back pollution regulations, and no further. Coincidentally, rolling back pollution regulations also enriches fossil fuel executives (and disproportionately impacts the health of working-class families). Certainly helping coal communities is never prioritized over, say, high-end tax cuts. At least miners get to appear as props in political rallies, though. And all the while, Trump just keeps lying to them. The whole GOP does. More than a few Democrats, too. Whatever solutions might benefit coal communities, surely it must begin with telling them the truth: US coal is not coming back. Coal jobs are not coming back. Imposing more pollution on already-suffering communities won’t change that.
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https://www.vox.com/energy-and-environment/2017/4/28/15465348/obama-trump-regulations-coal