A few months ago, during the WV primary, Hillary was confronted by a coal miner about her position on fossil fuels and its impact on his job, which was gone. Hillary’s comments about coal have been widely viewed as tone-deaf and even a little insensitive.
“I’m the only candidate which has a policy about how to bring economic opportunity using clean renewable energy as the key into coal country,” Clinton said in March. “Because we’re going to put a lot of coal miners and coal companies out of business…”
She gave a rambling, apologetic response to the coal miner, but IMO she could have done better. Here’s how.
Consider the following modest proposal for a Hillary platform position that would address this problem in an effective and politically advantageous fashion. How about an income tax credit for anyone working in the fossil fuel industry who wants to take classes to be retrained to work in another industry? It could be incorporated into the overall plank on education reform. It would be unrestricted in terms of the specific field of study the student chose, whether technical, financial, creative, religious, whatever. It could be structured so that it would result in cash back for the applicant, even if the credit exceeded their total tax obligation.
The wording of the bill might go something like:
“A program shall be developed to provide educational training for those currently or previously employed in the fossil fuel industry to facilitate their employment in alternate businesses or industries. Reimbursement for educational expenses at an accredited college or university shall be provided as an unrestricted tax credit, including reimbursement for tuition, fees, room and board, and related travel or commuting or child care expenses. To be eligible for this credit, the applicant must show that they were employed for a total of six months or more during the period from January 1, 2010 to December 31, 2016 by a company engaged in mining, refining, manufacturing, or selling a product or by-product of the fossil fuel industry, including coal, oil, natural gas, or other carbon-based fossil fuel. The amount of the credit shall not be limited by the applicant’s tax obligation. This credit shall expire on December 31, 2026.”
The 2010-2016 time frame would ensure that no one could accept a new job with Exxon-Mobil for the express purpose of getting a free education. We don’t want the bill to incentivize people to start working in the fossil fuel industry. But even if they did it just for the education, personally, I wouldn’t really care.
There are so many positive aspects of this proposal. Clearly, it would help those put out of a job by the inevitable contraction and closure of fossil-fuel companies to be retrained and to find work. The costs would be offset by the reduced expenditures that the govt would incur if those people were laid off and had to collect unemployment insurance. It would provide educational opportunities for those who might not otherwise ever take a college class, and an educated electorate helps progressives. It would also stimulate the educational institutions that would collect the students’ payments.
It would work entirely through the private sector, by leveraging existing educational institutions and their certification processes. Since the contraction of the fossil fuel industry is inevitable anyway, there might even be bipartisan support for such an effort, at least among Republicans with a modicum of concern for their unemployed constituents.
Yeah, right.
Just a thought.