WASHINGTON — With just over two weeks until the election, Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump have sparred on a number of issues.
But one thing they’re not talking much about is coal, an industry that defined eastern Kentucky for much of the 20th century.
At a 2016 campaign rally, Republican candidate Donald Trump donned a hard hat, surrounded by supporters waving “Trump Digs Coal” signs in West Virginia.
“We’re going to put the miners back to work!” he told the crowd.
Erin Bates, with the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) says she hasn’t heard either candidate focus on coal in the 2024 election.
“It’s not necessarily a federal regulated issue here that’s causing these plants to shut down,” said Bates. “Utility companies are not using coal as much. And so it is a situation where regardless of what the presidential candidate says, if the utility companies are not going to use it, they’re not going to have any economy.”
Trump’s Agenda 47 platform promises to “Make America the dominant energy producer in the world, by far!” and the RNC platform linked from his site says Republicans will end “market-distorting restrictions” on coal.
Earlier this month, Trump mentioned a shuttered coal-fired power plant in Pennsylvania.
“I hope whoever owns that plant can just keep it around for a few months, just keep going, because we’re going to let that plant go for a long time,” he said.
This week, the U.S. Supreme Court announced it would let a Biden administration rule stay in place pending legal challenges.
It would require many coal-fired power plants to capture 90% of their carbon emissions or shut down within eight years.
Kamala Harris’ website points to her tie-breaking vote on the Inflation Reduction Act that it says is “lowering household energy costs, creating hundreds of thousands of high-quality clean energy jobs, and building a thriving clean energy economy.”
According to a report this month from the Appalachian Regional Commission, last year, Appalachia’s coal production level was down to 40% of what it was in 2000 and the region’s coal mining employment was 59% of what it had been then.
Charles Kolstad, an energy and environmental economist at Stanford University, says the competition from natural gas, cost of coal production and consumption and what he called “ineffective” environmental regulations have all contributed to coal’s decline.
“If I were representing Trump, I’d probably advise that he push reducing regulations and also job retraining,” said Kolstad. “If I were Harris, I’d show a lot of concern about the communities in Appalachia and the Midwest that are losing their livelihood.”
The UMWA hasn’t endorsed Trump or Harris, Bates said.
“Neither candidate has really been able to sit down and tell us what they’re willing to offer the coal miners,” she said.
Bates said she would like to hear how the candidates would preserve current jobs, find new ones for workers losing theirs and rebuild communities impacted by plant closures.
Spectrum News asked both campaigns for more information on the candidates’ policy positions on coal.
The Harris campaign did not respond.
The Trump campaign said, “Under President Trump’s leadership, the United States will commit to slashing energy and electricity prices bringing your energy bills down by 50%-70%.”