West Virginia and Kentucky have led the nation in underground mining employment for over a hundred years. These have been highly paid jobs due to the danger involved and the activities of the United Mine Workers union.
But this is all changing.
Trump wants to halt the decline by instituting policies that enhance the prospects of these miners.
I’d like to help him out by suggesting some activities that would help their prospects.
The biggest threat comes from coal mining elsewhere. Coal mined via open pits in Wyoming costs much less because it employs fewer people ( a dozen versus a hundred per mine).
Solution: Ban open-pit mining.
Another threat comes because Appalachian coal is actually petering out, just like Pennsylvania anthracite in the last century.
Solution: Ask God to create more coal.
Burning bituminous coal is very messy. Coal smoke creates huge atmospheric pollution.
Solution: Eliminate any kind of emission standards (just in case you haven’t figured this one out yourself).
Natural Gas can produce electricity for far less than coal.
Solution: Ban Natural Gas.
Renewables likewise produce electricity for far less than coal.
Solution: Ban Renewables
(You have to ignore the fact that the (US Department of Energy (DOE) reports that in 2016, 3,384,834 Americans
were directly employed by the clean energy industry. Meanwhile, coal provided 160,119 jobs.)
On a related note, the Tobacco Industry directly employs 50,000 in factories and 140, 000 in farming. We must
save these jobs by encouraging smoking and eliminating imported tobacco, mechanization and taxation.
Elementary, my dear Donald.
