Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump promised to get coal miners back to work if he is elected, signaling his latest line of attack against Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton.
That line of attack is music to the ears of coal country, beaten down by the collapse of the coal industry during recent years.
Trump, speaking at Trump Tower following his victory in Indiana’s primary, criticized Clinton for promising to put coal companies and miners “out of business” earlier this year.
“I watched her when she was talking about the miners as if they were just numbers,” Trump said. “She was talking about she wants the mines closed. The miners in West Virginia and Pennsylvania, Ohio, all over, they are going to start to work again. You’re going to be proud to be miners.”
West Virginia’s presidential primary is May 10, and it might be one of the few times energy policy takes center stage during a presidential fight.
The Mountain State’s economy has suffered in recent years as the coal industry fell apart. The combination of cheap natural gas and regulations from President Obama have hurt the bottom lines of coal companies, putting many out of work.
This year, Peabody Energy and Arch Coal, the two biggest coal companies in the country, filed for bankruptcy protection.
Clinton endured a trip to coal country this week, where she was met with derision and confrontation from miners. In West Virginia, she was shown the middle finger by protesters as she drove away from one event and she was confronted multiple times by miners. She has announced plans to help retrain coal miners and has called for a Marshall Plan-esque process to rebuild the economies of coal states.
But that doesn’t make her popular in West Virginia, and Trump’s statements of support for the industry have gained him endorsements from Republicans in the state.
West Virginia Senate President and gubernatorial candidate Bill Cole announced he was endorsing Trump on Tuesday, pointing to the candidate’s support of coal.
“Donald Trump understands business and economics. He knows how to create jobs. And, most of all, he has spoken out for revitalizing our coal industry,” Cole said. “I look forward to working with him in rebuilding our economy and making sure that West Virginia is on the winning end of his efforts to make America great again.”
Luke Popovich, vice president at the National Mining Association, said Trump’s comments contrast favorably with Clinton’s positions on energy in states such as West Virginia.
In his comments Tuesday night, Popovich said Trump exposed one of the stranger themes of the 2016 race. By supporting coal miners, the wealthy Trump showed he fights for working people, while Clinton, the product of a slightly more working-class background, sides with elites.
“The chasm that separates them on this issue begs the larger question, namely, which candidate will defend working people and which will patronize them,” Popovich said. “Ironies abound: the GOP standard bearer, from Manhattan, allies himself with miners, while the Democratic counterpart, from the Midwest and built a law career in natural resource-reliant Arkansas, allies herself with climate activists in affluent precincts like Manhattan.”
However, Trump’s remarks on coal and his ascension to the top of the GOP are seen as potentially catastrophic to environmentalists.
Jason Kowalski, spokesman for 350 Action, said Trump’s comments show his true stripes as a climate change doubter. The Manhattan billionaire has long been an outright denier of climate change and his support for increasing coal production shows he has no regard for the effects of planet’s rising temperature, Kowalski said.
“Pushing for more coal extraction in 2016 is an act of climate denial. As the world moves away from coal, communities across the country are fighting to break free from fossil fuels and keep coal, oil and gas in the ground where it belongs,” Kowalski said. “Candidates need to focus on ambitious plans for a just transition for coal country and on shepherding in a renewable energy economy that works for all.”
Khalid Pitts, the political director for the Sierra Club, called Trump’s status as the presumptive nominee “a profound blow to common sense.”
“Donald Trump’s victory solidifies the unfortunate fact that a person with a total disregard for the crisis posed by climate change will have a megaphone throughout the general election,” Pitts said. “The stakes have never been higher, and while one party features two candidates debating the best way to tackle this crisis head on, Trump’s willingness to ignore this crisis demonstrates even further that his reckless, dangerous positions would undermine both American global leadership and our economy in one stroke.”
