On Wednesday, the Wall Street Journal’s editorial board lauded Trump for making coal barons dreams come true.
Not long ago liberals hailed the demise of coal as inevitable while the Obama Administration strangled the industry with regulation. But don’t look now, Tom Steyer, because coal is showing signs of a revival and breathing economic life into West Virginia and other coal states. […]
Yet the Trump Presidency seems to have lifted animal spirits and coal. Weekly coal production has increased by 14.5% nationwide over last year with even bigger bumps in West Virginia (19%), Pennsylvania (19.7%) and Wyoming (19.8%). Exports were up 58% during the first quarter from last year. Apparently coal can be marketable if regulators let it be.
Honestly, I don’t know what “animal spirits” are or how they get lifted, but the contention that Trump has given a big boost to coal is simply, what’s that term? Fake news. Or, in language that’s even easier to understand, it’s a big, fat lie. In their attempt to support Trump, the Wall Street Journal is distorting the truth about coal and cruelly raising the hopes of people who have bought into a false promise. They’re performing a disservice to their readers and to their nation.
That big increase in production they’re talking about? It’s generated by comparing the current weekly production with the same week last year. The first quarter of 2017 saw production of 197 million tons of coal, compared to 173 million in the same quarter of 2016. Which does look like an uptick.
But look at it in context.
That single orange bar, the bar that’s actually lower than the quarter before, and the quarter before that? That’s Trump’s “comeback.”