Donald Trump, the Republican frontrunner in the US presidential campaign, is standing in favour of the coal mining industry in Ohio.
At a rally in Dayton, OH on Saturday, the bombastic businessman took aim at the EPA’s regulations targeting Ohio’s coal and steel industry.
“They are a complete disaster, we are going to change things around,” Trump said ahead of the state’s March 15 primary. “We have to protect your coal industry which is being decimated” by EPA regulations, he added. “And we have to protect your steel industry.”
The EPA reference is partly to the Clean Power Plan passed by the Obama Administration. Under the plan, new rules require that states lower their carbon dioxide emissions by 32 percent from 2005 levels by 2030. The regulations could mean some coal-fired power plants will have to shut down in order to meet the limits. The Clean Power Plan has been widely criticized by the US coal industry as kicking coal miners when they’re already down from low prices and a global supply glut. According to federal data the industry has shed over 7,500 jobs in the last year, and a study in April of last year concluded that the industry lost 50,000 jobs between 2008 and 2012 due to increased regulatory initiatives as well as inexpensive natural gas which competes with coal.
“They are a complete disaster, we are going to change things around.”
Ohio is one of 24 states that are challenging the Clean Power Plan in federal court.
In the United States, 42 coal companies had declared bankruptcy since 2012, as of last June, according to S&P Global Market Intelligence.
6 Comments
Evans Lisomona
Trump’s presidential run is now taking a new twist. Intriguing to find out what the green movement will say!
Mark Potochnik
LOL! He will have money falling from the sky! Promise anything. Coal supplies are already being depleted. 200 years of coal is a BIG LIE! Recent studies show a 30 year supply of easy coal. All of those promising to “save coal” have done nothing.
Rich Meyer
A progressive is a progressive, no matter if he has a D or an R after his name.
As usual, Trump presents no solution, only rhetoric. And if anyone calls him on it, he puffs up like a rooster.
Anyone who thinks he gives two shits about our coal industry is sadly mistaken.
SingleFather
USA can obtain all the coal it needs from Canada with an American dollar worth $1.4 C$. Premier Notley of Alberta, Canada plans to shut down our coal generating stations. This is where Trump is coming from courtesy of Dr. Henry Makow:
http://henrymakow.com/2016/03/does-america-have-a-right.html
patentbs
Thermal coal is an issue and people are losing their jobs. Clinton addressed this by offering tourism and ‘frys with that? ‘jobs. I can not see most miners in favor of that. – Coal is one of the original ‘Carbon Capture and Sequester’ operations!
A much bigger issue is the steel industry that has been almost destroyed in North America by regulations and other pressures that drove production to China and eastern Europe. Now Chinese production is not reliable into the future and there is no American options available. Steel should be a national strategy!
klgmac
In the end, unions haven’t protected workers wages, benefits or jobs. It’ too bad about a deliberate policy to bankrupt the coal companies. Those guys used to buy a lot of trucks.