Trump's promise to put the coal miners back to work ignored (intentionally?) the reality that the coal industry's biggest problem wasn't Obama or Clinton, but capitalism. Cheaper natural gas is what is killing coal, and the fact that renewables are getting cheaper and more competitive only adds to coal's problems. The fact that coal is a major polluter doesn't help, either.
After 3 years of Trump, employment in the coal industry was the lowest ever, and this was after Trump had rolled back every government regulation limiting the coal industry that he could.
The coal industry may not ever disappear completely, but it will shrink more than it has already. It doesn't matter who's in the White House. The real question is are we going to do anything for the Americans that relied on the coal industry for their livelihoods? Trump sure didn't.
Hillary Clinton's famous comment about putting coal mines out of business may have killed her politically, but if you read the entire comment, she hit the nail on the head. We, as a nation, need to take care of the people who for generations have worked the mines, and sacrificed their health and sometimes their lives in the process.
Clinton was asked what she would do to support working-class voters who typically vote Republican. Here, for the record, is her full answer:
Instead of dividing people the way Donald Trump does, let’s reunite around politics that will bring jobs and opportunities to all these under-served poor communities. So, for example, I’m the only candidate who has a policy about how to bring economic opportunity using clean renewable energy as the key into coal country. Because we’re going to put a lot of coal miners and coal companies out of business, right, Tim? [Rep. Tim Ryan (D-OH) was in the audience.]
And we’re going to make it clear that we don’t want to forget those people. Those people labored in those mines for generations, losing their health, often losing their lives to turn on our lights and power our factories. Now we’ve got to move away from coal and all the other fossil fuels, but I don’t want to move away from the people who did the best they could to produce energy that we relied on.
https://www.vox.com/energy-and-environment/2017/9/15/16306158/hillary-clinton-hall-of-mirrors
https://www.spglobal.com/marketintelligence/en/news-insights/latest-news-headlines/us-coal-mining-employment-hits-new-low-at-the-end-of-2019-may-go-lower-in-2020-57173047#:~:text=The%20total%20U.S.%20average%20coal,analysis%20of%20federal%20data%20showed.&text=%22In%20the%20United%20States%2C%20the,its%202019%20report%20on%20coal
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