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Coal continues to crater economically.
So, why Trumps' fixation on it?
Politically, coal is a symbol that animates one of the purest distillations of Trump’s base, uniting right-wing business executives who hate environmental regulations and taxes along with blue-collar workers who wish America was more like it used to be when coal was king.
Coal has become the opiate of The Base.
So far, coal is continuing its slump despite Trump’s support. Utilities have announced the retirements of 12 more coal-fired power plants since he took office, including two massive ones in Texas added to the closure list on Friday. That announcement marked a milestone: Half of America’s coal fleet has been marked for mothballs since 2010, a total of 262 doomed plants. And as jobs go, coal mining is now a tiny sliver of the U.S. economy, employing about 52,000 Americans last month, down 70 percent over three decades. (The count is up about 4 percent since Trump took office, but mostly because a snafu in China’s steel industry temporarily boosted U.S. exports.) By contrast, the solar and wind industries employed almost 10 times as many Americans last year, and they’re both enjoying explosive growth.
Trump's Love Affair with Coal
In February, surrounded by coal miners at the White House, President Donald Trump signed a bill repealing the Obama-era Stream Protection Rule, which would have restricted coal companies from burying streams. “This is a major threat to your jobs,” Trump said, “and we’re getting rid of this threat.” He did not mention streams.
In March, this time surrounded by coal miners at the Environmental Protection Agency, Trump signed an executive order vowing to roll back Obama-era climate change policies, including the Clean Power Plan limiting carbon pollution from coal-fired power plants. “C’mon fellas, you know what this says?” Trump asked. “You’re going back to work!” He did not mention climate or pollution.
So it was no surprise when, last week, Trump’s EPA administrator, Scott Pruitt, announced he was launching the formal process to repeal the Clean Power Plan in a speech to coal miners in the coal town of Hazard, Kentucky. He proclaimed, as his boss has many times, that “the war on coal is over.” There was once again little pretense that the move had much to do with the EP part of the EPA.
Last edited by Goose (10/15/2017 1:18 pm)
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They still think there is a War on Coal as well as a War on Christianity !