As a presidential candidate, Donald
Trump made promises to the coal industry and the communities it
supports. Trump claimed he could bring the coal industry back to its
heyday. However, as President, Trump has not done hardly anything to
bring back jobs to the coal industry. His first actions as President
have clearly shown that he does not care about helping the coal
mining communities. In fact, Trump's agenda shows a clear intent to
enact policies which would severely hurt coal mining communities.
Trump deregulation will not solve
anything
So far the Trump
Administration has attempted to fulfill his promises of bringing back
jobs to the coal industry via executive order aimed at dismantling
numerous environmental standards previously set by the Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA). However, this tactic is short-sighted and is
unlikely to have any long-term significant effect, according to a
study
from Columbia University's Center on Global Energy Policy.
The report reveals
that Trump's deregulatory agenda does not address the main causes of
coal's decline in the past few decades, which are competing demand
for natural gas and renewable energy sources. Any possible positive
benefits to Trump's deregulatory policies could be “overwhelmed by
the impact of cheaper natural gas” with a worst-case scenario of
coal consumption dropping “below levels... projected under Obama
administration policies,” according to the report released in
April. This blog had previously published a post
about how the reality of the dynamics between natural gas and coal do
not work in favor of Trump's economic thesis.
Trump budget cuts job retraining for
displaced coal miners
Despite the
macroeconomic outlook of the coal industry's decline, Trump is
attempting to make it more difficult for current and future
unemployed coal miners to be retrained with skills better-suited for
today's economy. Trump's recently proposed budget would slash at
least $1.13 billion from the Partnerships for Opportunity and
Workforce Economic Revitalization (POWER) Initiative, which helps to
train dislocated coal industry workers for occupations in-demand in
the current economy, according to The
Center for American Progress. The POWER initiative provided over
$115.8 million in funding for coal communities in over 20 states over
the past two years.
Trump's attempt to repeal Obamacare
disaster for black lung patients
In addition, to
making it challenging for coal miners to survive the job market
during the inevitable decline of the coal industry, the Trump agenda
is also threatening to make it more difficult for patients suffering
from black lung disease to obtain the medical care they need to
survive. Trump's staunch support of the GOP effort to repeal the
Affordable Care Act (ACA), otherwise known as Obamacare, would roll
back a provision within the ACA which made it drastically easier for
coal miners to obtain coverage for black lung disease, according to
News
and Tribune.
Trump ran his election campaign on the notion that he was somehow
more straightforward and honest compared to other more conventional
politicians. However, despite his rhetoric, his actions show that his
promises made to coal mining communities were only lies made up to
gain votes. It is clear that the intention of the Trump agenda is to
enact policies that would economically devastate these communities
while literally leaving them to die without healthcare.
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