Trump began his notorious presidential campaign, by appealing to hopeful and uneducated people. Such attributes are easy to persuade and manipulate. This was the key to his victory. This was why the least qualified presidential candidate in history was able to beat the most qualified presidential candidate. Trump quickly pounced on unemployed coal miners. Very much like a messiah or a false idol, Trump promised the sun and the moon. After he was elected, Trump continued teasing and baiting them, assuring them that under his presidency, those shuttered coal mines would reopen. But last week, during a visit to coal country in West Virginia, for the first time, he didn’t mention his coal plan. A sign that Trump is backing away from his ludicrous promises to reopen the coal mine.
The Heritage Foundation has been against Trump’s coal plan. Secretary Perry created a plan to bring back coal, which was adamantly rejected by the Federal Energy Regulatory Committee. In addition, the Electric Power Supply Association also opposed any half-ass Trump bailout plan for the coal industry, WashingtonExaminer. He can’t do anything for the miners, except continue to feed them false hope.
Remember one of the first things he did as president was to withdraw America from the Paris Agreement? The unemployed coal miners cheered with triumph. Coal is such a damaging pollutant, that one of the ramifications of the Paris Agreement, was to tax factories that use coal. By withdrawing from the accord, factories could use coal without the fines. However, using coal was still much pricier than other energy sources. Why not use nuclear power or natural gas? Both energy sources are much cheaper and eco-friendly.
Therefore, if Trump forced our industries to use coal, these factories would be paying more money in production costs. Ultimately, they would lose to competing foreign companies. Our entire industrial infrastructure would need to be majorly overhauled to replace coal as the leading energy source.
A coal resurgence is a pipe dream — a spectacular flight of fancy. Ever since the campaign, I have been fascinated with Trump’s attempt to rescue these coal miners. In my opinion, no other platform illustrated Trump’s winning strategy — promise the sun and the moon. But after the election, Trump’s promulgation of his lies became far more disgusting. These uneducated coal miners were so convinced that they would get their jobs back, that they even refused to learn a new trade, PoliticalHaze. Literally, they were given chances to learn new trades, but they refused.
Just two months ago, Trump was at a rally in West Virginia. After he punched his fist through the air he said, “We are back. The coal industry is back.” This is a disgusting lie. According to Reuters, our current coal consumption is at a 35 year low. Trump has been campaigning on all of these new “clean coal” power plants that were supposed to be built, providing thousands of jobs. In August 2017, plans to build a coal power plant in Kansas was scrapped. Another similar plant was scrapped in Texas, when the energy company declared bankruptcy. Desmogblog
During this same rally, just a few weeks ago, Trump’s false promises instilled hope in an arena packed with hopeless people.
The so-called Clean Power Plan. Doesn’t that sound nice?” Trump said. “We’ve got the cleanest country in the planet right now. There is nobody cleaner than us and it’s getting better and better.”
“We are putting our great coal miners back to work!” Trump said to cheers earlier in the rally.
Hope is the most precious commodity on earth. While Trump uttered these promises, he knew they were lies. He knew there was no way the coal mines would reopen. By giving them hope though, he keeps them on the leash, begging for more.
