What Trump got wrong by pushing coal
While campaigning in Columbus, Ohio, in March 2016, Hillary Clinton said something that she later cited as the comment she "regret[s] the most" from her presidential run. Clinton announced that she would put coal miners and companies out of business if she became president. Her comments likely cost her significant support across the coal-mining states of Ohio, Kentucky, Wyoming, Montana and Pennsylvania.
In the end, it wasn't Clinton who put the hurt on coal country but instead the rapidly declining costs of renewable energy, especially solar and wind, uber-cheap natural gas and an array of states and cities with ambitious climate change action plans requiring sharp reductions in carbon dioxide emissions. Four years ago, the writing was on the wall: Saving coal would require disregarding the market and reversing the plans towards decarbonization.
Over the course of Donald Trump's presidency, the U.S. has remained the world's premiere oil and gas producer. But coal has continued to struggle. Bringing back coal in the United States was not something that could be achieved by executive decree.
In 2016 "Trump digs coal" became a campaign slogan, and in almost every speech he pledged to revive the sector. "We're gonna put the miners back to work. We're gonna get those mines open," he said on numerous occasions. Trump assured coal companies and communities that he would bring coal-mining jobs back and protect the industry. He saw what he considered to be alienated and angry coal miners who were seeing their livelihoods disappear, and he capitalized on their frustration. He captured their attention, won votes and in the first year of his presidency continued to tout his ability to resuscitate the industry. Clinton's comments are closer to today's reality. With the 2020 election around the corner, it's clear Trump hasn't kept his promises.
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