EPA chief exaggerates growth of coal jobs by tens of thousands
Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt made the Sunday morning talk show rounds in an effort to defend President Donald Trump’s decision to exit the Paris climate accord. Pruitt repeatedly argued the climate agreement would harm the U.S. economy, particularly coal industry jobs.
Pruitt make several misleading and inaccurate statements during his tour of the television networks. The EPA chief’s biggest fib was probably his statement, made on multiple shows on Sunday, that the coal industry has grown by 50,000 job over the last few months.
No data exists from government or industry sources to back up the claim that the industry has seen such a dramatic surge in coal mining jobs over this time period. In fact, the average number of coal mining jobs increased by only 586, or about 1.1 percent during the first three months of 2017, according to a report from S&P Global Market Intelligence, citing data from the U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration.
Since the end of 2016, the number of coal industry jobs has remained relatively steady in almost all regions of the United States, except the Central Appalachia region. In this region, the number of coal mining jobs grew from slightly below 15,000 to slightly above that number from January to March.
https://thinkprogress.org/epa-chief-exaggerates-coal-job-growth-2ab69ed36b6
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