Coal Will Never Return Despite Trump’s Promises
BY SAM FIELDS
Who has not bought an Apple product?
Me.
In fact, I have never seen an Apple product.
I’m not talking about the computer company.
I’m not talking about the Beatle record company.
I’m not even talking about the fruit.
I’m talking about the electric car company that went in and out of business between 1915 and 1917.
It’s one of hundreds of defunct carmakers–like the Baby Moose, the Darling and the Anheuser-Busch (“A drunk in every trunk”)–that could not make it in the free market.
Enter Donald Trump, who told blue collar voters that the free market is a fake and that he alone can repeal the laws of economics. And, like Jesus raising Lazarus, only “The Donald” can raise defunct manufacturing and coal mining jobs from the dead.
To understand why this is nonsense, consider a nostalgia trip I took to New York City last week. I visited the Queens house where I was born in 1945.
The current owners let me check out the basement. On the wall was the coal chute my Dad closed up when we converted to oil in 1950. Also gone was his oil tank when the current owners replaced oil with natural gas.
These changes were based on convenience and price not protecting the environment. Neither Donald Trump, nor an earlier version of him, could have affected those choices.
Nevertheless, Trump convinced West Virginia and Kentucky miners that it was the Environmental Protection Administration and not the free market that had taken away their jobs. The truth is coal can be strip-mined for half the price in Wyoming and electric power plants can be run even cheaper on fracked natural gas.
During the Reagan-Bush years of 1985-92 employment in coal dropped from 173,000 to 100,000.
China is closing of a 1000 coal mines-a-year!
If coal had a future, Captain Kirk would be running The Enterprise on anthracite instead of “di-lithium crystals”. The only real future for coal miners is the Democratic platform which calls for retraining these folks for employment with a future!
No one should believe for a second he will succeed in reviving coal mines and factories. His plan for 35% tariffs, canceling trade agreements and eviscerating the EPA will do nothing but inflate prices at home, start trade wars that will damage our exports and bring back acid rain.
What I fear is that President Trump will throw up enough smoke, mirrors and hate to convince his base that he has invented an economic time machine to make it feel like it is once again the White Supremacist 1950’s.
He already started down that path this week when he announced that he convinced William Ford, the head of Ford Motors, not close its Kentucky plants and move production to Mexico.
It didn’t matter that Ford had no such plans. It only mattered that Trump could tweet that he saved all those jobs…even if they were never in danger.
So, to prevent him from defining the terms of his own success, I propose that on Inaugural Day someone open a website with the picture and story of 500 closed coal mines and 500 closed factories. Each would have a brief history including the number of jobs lost and when they closed.
There would be a daily calendar marking off the Trump Presidency and letting readers regularly check how many of these coal mines and factories have reopened.
My guess is that it will be few…if any.
But in case I am wrong I will be the first to admit it. In which case I will go out and buy an Apple and an Anheuser-Busch…the cars, not the cellphone or the beer.
November 21st, 2016 at 8:34 am
The coal chute story has more wisdom in it than anything Cruz Sanders Clinton Trump ever said this years
November 21st, 2016 at 9:16 am
Im sure this will be a huge blow to the Broward coal industry.
How is this remotely a topic for Broward Beat? It isn’t even a Florida story.
November 21st, 2016 at 11:41 am
Market forces and new, disruptive technology is the proper and moral way to change things. Just as in your examples of coal to oil to natural gas. What is immoral and improper is for governments and bureaucrats to regulate a business out of existence, as is being done to coal.
Coal powers half the electric grid in the US. Coal from WV, while more expensive to get to because it is largely underground, is of a far superior grade to Wyoming coal. In addition, it is closer to manufacturing and power generators, making transportation costs less.
You don’t have to tell a WV coal miner that his coal is more expensive to produce, especially when he can see with his own two eyes that less and less is coming out of the mine or that PARTICULAR mine is played out. What infuriates miners is seeing rich coal seams left in the ground because of over-regulation.
One more thing. Ask Bill Clinton why he closed off about $1 Trillion worth of coal mines in Utah. Could it be the million$ in illegal foreign campaign contributions from Indonesian coal mining interests back in his 1996 re-election? Are current Democrats taking similar payoffs for their own benefits?
November 21st, 2016 at 11:48 am
This business/economic prediction is from the same buffoon who said facebook was going to zero!stay away he said!bragged about his own self managed account. Sammy, did you short all the mining stocks? if so pls list dates,opening position prices as well as closing prices, position size so we’ll know whether you’re the 50 share buyer I think you are!sam, why don’t you just shut up about things you really don’t know about.
November 21st, 2016 at 12:16 pm
You are right about coal . Coal is dirty. Hard to mine. Let alone dangerous. I am no “coal-miners daughter. However, I tend to agree w/ you on that. as far as Pres.elect Trump, he won fair and square, I respect that .H e has to be given a chance. As far as th egay comm. relax w/ the protest. Marriage equality went before supreme court. U won. Trump ha sno desire to overturn that(he can’t). Also to point out he needs the chance to govern. Like Pres.Obama stated we have to wait and see. I wish him well, for the sake of the country. Wheres Cindy adams(page 6) when I need her…..
November 21st, 2016 at 6:39 pm
The real fuel of the future is Bovine Methane. BM will power the world someday.
November 21st, 2016 at 8:09 pm
@5 Walsh:
Grand Theft Judiciary: How Republicans Stole The Supreme Court
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/features/how-trump-and-the-republicans-stole-the-supreme-court-w450269
FROM BUDDY:
Elections have consequences.
November 21st, 2016 at 8:46 pm
Cindy Adams has nithing to do with Page 6 which uses stringers and press releases. Cindy Adams widow of a grest conedian Joey Adams does her own leg work.
FROM BUDDY:
Cindy Adams is 86 years old. Maybe she is working the phones, but “leg work.” I doubt it.
November 22nd, 2016 at 8:02 am
Fields has once again turned a thoughtful debate into a partisan rant.
Donald Trump tapped generations of lies and neglect — Democrat and Republican — to working people. It has little to do with White Supremacy and everything to do with no attention being paid coal workers of West Virginia and other places.
Fields is right that coal is dead. He is wrong that Hillary Clinton would have done any more than Donald Trump. At least Trump was paying attention. We will see whether it was just campaigning or real attention.
November 22nd, 2016 at 8:59 am
Yes she still shows up at Events.
November 22nd, 2016 at 9:50 am
No one wants coal. Perhaps the fools falsely believe that coal will save America never heard of Black Lung Disease. Social Security has paid billions for the disabled.
Black lung disease is a common name for any lung disease that develops from inhaling coal dust. This name comes from the fact that those with the disease have lungs that look black instead of pink. Medically, it is a type of pneumoconiosis called coal workers’ pneumoconiosis
November 22nd, 2016 at 3:37 pm
everywhere else in the world, coal use has increased. and you think coal is dead. cola is alive and will in asia. there is no resource on this earth that will not be used eventually. I guarantee it. buy coal futures while they are cheap and your family will be rich on your legacy in 100 years
November 24th, 2016 at 10:40 am
To those that voted for the Orange Hindenburg…
You just elected Nero, now we get to all watch as he burns down Rome.
HRC was horrible, atrocious, and her family greedy.
I think fairly soon she’ll be felt with forlorn.
Just remember … you voted for GWB, and look what that got us.
November 25th, 2016 at 12:04 pm
PS From the Washington Post:
The researchers used Internet analytics tools to trace the origins of particular tweets and mapped the connections among social-media accounts that consistently delivered synchronized messages. Identifying website codes sometimes revealed common ownership. In other cases, exact phrases or sentences were echoed by sites and social-media accounts in rapid succession, signaling membership in connected networks controlled by a single entity.
PropOrNot’s monitoring report, which was provided to The Washington Post in advance of its public release, identifies more than 200 websites as routine peddlers of Russian propaganda during the election season, with combined audiences of at least 15 million Americans. On Facebook, PropOrNot estimates that stories planted or promoted by the disinformation campaign were viewed more than 213 million times.
Some players in this online echo chamber were knowingly part of the propaganda campaign, the researchers concluded, while others were “useful idiots” — a term born of the Cold War to describe people or institutions that unknowingly assisted Soviet Union propaganda efforts.
***
How does it feel to be a useful idiot, dear GOP loyalist?
November 27th, 2016 at 3:58 pm
I’m NPA, not a GOP “loyalist.” Or a useful idiot.
There’s enough about Hillary from her own mouth and what she’s done to account for her loss. The stories might have been viewed, but that doesn’t mean the viewer didn’t know it was dreck.
FROM BUDDY:
Some Democrats refuse to accept responsibility for the loss. Ignoring the real reasons for losing will insure they continue to lose.
Democrats blame Facebook, the Russians or the alleged hayseeds in the fly-over states. They need to look at their own party!
Why did the Democratic message fail in places like Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Florida? Why did the party anoint a deeply flawed candidate like Hillary Clinton?
Democrats need to revamp the party top to bottom, including building a field team of future candidates.
November 28th, 2016 at 6:22 am
@2 saying coal use is increasing goes AGAINST all theliterature I have seen in my mineralogical newspapers n journals.
November 28th, 2016 at 10:50 am
@ 14 Chaz
Given your investigative instincts, it is surprising you would not seek other sources on the group cited in the WashPost. This previously unknown group formed in August has already been dissed by most of the “allied” groups it cited.
Read this:
https://theintercept.com/2016/11/26/washington-post-disgracefully-promotes-a-mccarthyite-blacklist-from-a-new-hidden-and-very-shady-group/
I am not saying the Russkies didn’t try to influence our election just as Hillary Clinton’s State Department did to one of their elections but the Washington Post seems to be relying on the same type of shadowy source as they are claiming influenced our election.
But not unexpected of the Post. Poor Bezos (owner of this once proud paper. His foreign sources for Amazon.com products will get more expensive once Trump renegotiates our trade agreements.
FROM BUDDY:
Foreign-produced products won’t get “more expensive” for Amazon.com. They will get more expensive for consumers.
Many can afford $30 tee shirts made in the United States. Many people can’t, and that is the big downside of Donald Trump’s campaign promises on trade.
November 28th, 2016 at 1:46 pm
Trump has jumped on the hoax of “clean coal” which doesn’t now or will ever exist. It’s part of his say anything to get elected which worked with the deft hand of the FBI putting a finger on the scale
November 28th, 2016 at 9:34 pm
All this is fascinating, but wouldn’t a post on the fallout for South Florida from Fidel Castro’s death be more germane?
FROM BUDDY:
Here is the post:
No fallout can be predicted. The same government is in place and we don’t know the future moves of Donald Trump.
November 29th, 2016 at 10:47 am
Stop whining Soreloserman!!!
November 29th, 2016 at 12:07 pm
The Dems lost because a shrill idiot put a fucking email server in her linen closet.
Ever been in a data center? One with uber crazy tight security? Trust me, security is a lot more than just closing the closet door.
The funny thing … you useful idiots are now in charge, no more blaming it on Obama. All up to you.
I hope you’re right, because we’re all fucked if you’re wrong.
December 12th, 2016 at 12:07 am
I voted for Hilliary but in a word Mr. Stevens is right Senator Clinton never gave an honest answer wht a private server