May 4, 2016

The value of coal to the economy and to presidential aspirations won powerful endorsements on the campaign trail this week.  Both presumptive candidates for the White House gave coal and coal jobs top billing, albeit in very different ways.  What they left unmistakably clear, however, was that coal and the communities it supports will remain an issue to be reckoned with as both parties vie for the support of working Americans.

Hillary Clinton corrected her controversial “misstatement” about wanting to shut down the industry.  “It didn’t mean that we were going to do it,” she said on Monday about her remark to CNN last month. “What we said is that it’s going to happen unless we take action to help and prevent it.”

Donald Trump’s contribution to the pro-coal conversation was, as expected, less syntactical. “The coal miners and the miners of West Virginia and Pennsylvania and Ohio and all of these places … they have been devastated as an industry, they’re going to be put back to work, and they’re going to love their jobs again.”

The Obama administration’s policies often seek to destroy the coal industry.  However, both candidates recognize the importance of the industry to the nation.