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by Jensine Eckwall
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Austin, Tex. — Donald J. Trump made many important
campaign promises on his way to victory. But saving coal is one promise
he won’t be able to keep.
Many in Appalachia and other coal-mining regions believe
that President Obama’s supposed war on coal caused a steep decline in the
industry’s fortunes. But coal’s struggles to compete are caused by cheap
natural gas, cheap renewables, air-quality regulations that got their start in
the George W. Bush administration and weaker-than-expected demand for coal in
Asia.
Nationwide, coal employment peaked in the 1920s. The more
recent decline in Appalachian coal employment started in the 1980s during the
administration of Ronald Reagan because of the role that automation and
mechanization played in replacing miners with machines, especially in
mountaintop removal mining. Job losses in Appalachia were compounded by
deregulation of the railroads. Freight prices for trains dropped as a result,
which meant that Western coal — which is much cleaner and cheaper than Eastern
coal — could be sold to markets far away, cutting into the market share of
Appalachian mines. These market forces recently drove six publicly traded coal
producers into bankruptcy in the span of a year.
Mr. Trump cannot reverse these trends.
