Coal Comfort
June 5, 2018
6/5/18 – Coal is in the news for reasons seemingly at odds. In Issues recently, a longtime analyst showed that coal has declined as an energy source over the past century primarily because of technology innovation, social forces, and price decreases of other forms of energy. Yet the Trump administration has announced plans to stop the closure of struggling coal mines putatively to protect national security, while also cutting the tax that coal companies pay to help miners with the deadly disease black lung, even as new research reveals that more miners have the disease than previously thought.