For years under the Obama administration, Republicans worked to convince voters they would fix a series of intractable problems, if only they could reclaim control of all main seats of government. GOP lawmakers promised to make health care cheaper, straighten out chaos in the Middle East, and restore economic prosperity to communities hit by the declining coal industry.
Now that Republicans control both houses of Congress and the White House (and large majorities of state legislatures and governorships across the country), they’ve found themselves in the uncomfortable position of having to actually make good on their promises. And so far, they’ve failed miserably.
We all watched the Republican healthcare strategy implode, once it became apparent that the party actually had no plan to make care more accessible. Trump has not unveiled any grand new strategy for dealing with Middle East conflict, and has repeatedly embarrassed the U.S. with his overwhelming ignorance of world affairs. And how are things going with the GOP’s third major promise, to save coal country from supposedly burdensome environmental regulations?
Despite lots of cheap talk, Republicans have not been able to do much for coal country. Making matters worse, they’ve also failed to put forward any coherent strategy for helping coal communities adapt to a post-carbon world.
To appease coal states, Trump has taken steps to eliminate the Clean Power Plan, pull out of the Paris climate agreement, and freeze or reverse several other Obama-era environmental regulations. All this has had the effect of tarnishing the reputation of the U.S. abroad, as the rest of the world moves forward on climate policy without us. But it has not done much to save the coal industry.
This year, the parade of coal plant closures and announced retirements has continued more or less unabated, in keeping with trends from the past several years. Some higher-profile cases have involved two Ohio plants now set to close by next year, three New England plants that shut down within a day of Trump’s Paris agreement pull-out, and the announcement that a Nevada coal plant will close ten years ahead of schedule.
The main problem for the GOP is, the decline of coal is linked to forces much larger than environmental regulations. Lower-carbon forms of energy have gotten cheaper. People have grown tired of suffering the effects of living next to dirty, polluting power plants. Coal is now seen as the energy of the past, and it is going the way of the typewriter and the horse-drawn buggy.
In other words, Republican claims to be able to save coal country were nothing more than smoke and mirrors. The GOP has no viable plan to reverse the decline of coal. What they could do is support policies to help buffer coal mining families against tough economic times. These policies might include Medicaid for all, raising the minimum wage, making higher education affordable, and strengthening programs like food stamps. These are all steps that would help coal workers train for and make a living doing other kinds of work, or provide for workers and their families during times of unemployment. But of course, they are also the kinds of policies adamantly opposed by Republicans.
Ironically, even as Trump has doubled down on his pro-coal rhetoric, the US Labor Department recently awarded $4.6 million to Montana to retrain coal workers in anticipation of the state’s massive Colstrip power plant partially shutting down. A more astute leader than Trump might have used this moment to talk publicly about the need to provide for coal workers as the country shifts to cleaner, more climate-friendly sources of energy. Instead, Trump emerged looking hypocritical; while he continues talking about ending a “war on coal,” the actions of at least some people in his administration show they see the inevitability of coal’s decline.
The fading of coal from our energy mix is good for the climate, good for public lands ravaged by mining, and good for the health of millions of people living in the shadow of polluting power plants. Still, we need to acknowledge the very real impacts on coal workers and their families. These hard-working people deserve our respect, compassion, and support—but the Republican Party has only offered them lies and false promises.
As coal continues its inevitable decline under Trump, I believe that a great many people in coal country are going to wake to the GOP’s duplicity. Who are they going to vote for, then?