By Roger Horton

May 16, 2016 - Earlier this week, Citizens for Coal launched Coal for Trump, an organization focused solely on the upcoming race for the presidency of the United States. They believe Donald Trump offers real hope to our coalfield communities. He has said clearly that he will push for the reining in and elimination of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency – the rogue federal agency that has been used as a political weapon by the Obama Administration and the national Democratic Party against its political enemies – most notably America’s coal and energy industries.

Trump understands that America must rebuild its manufacturing base, and to do so it needs dependable American energy sources like coal. Without coal you can’t make steel. Without coal, our nation simply can’t keep its lights on and its engine of industry turning.

Yes, Hillary Clinton has promised to fund a $30 billion relief effort for the nation’s coalfields, but when you actually look at the programs she would include in this “coalfield relief” it becomes clear our mining communities in West Virginia would get pennies on the dollar for what they have taken from us.  To put it in perspective, West Virginia’s coal industry provides $3.4 annually in wages alone and $26 billion in contributions to the state’s gross state product.  Beyond that, Clinton says she wants to “retrain” coal miners – what exactly would they be retraining for?  What about the homes, cars and possessions that would likely be lost? How about the damage done to these people’s lives? Ruined credit would prevent many from leaving even if they could find another job. 

We don’t need band-aids. No matter how big they are, a band-aid won’t stop a hemorrhage. And we are hemorrhaging jobs across the coalfields. Our coal miners need to be unshackled and set free from the regulatory chains imposed on them by the Obama’s overseers at the EPA. 

As a lifelong Democrat, I would never have believed a Democratic president  -- or ANY president --- would intentionally destroy an entire segment of the nation’s economy. I would never have believed either national political party would do so, but that is exactly what the Obama Administration and the new leadership of the national Democratic Party has done. Now Hillary wants to continue and complete the work started by Obama. She gleefully said in Ohio that “we are going to put a lot of coal miners and coal companies out of work.” Then – as an afterthought she offered a pat on the head and a “now be a good dog and go away.”

For these reasons, West Virginians MUST support Donald Trump in his bid to be the next president. We need to bring the nightmare of the past seven years to an end. The 11,000 unemployed coal miners and 50,000 service and contract workers currently laid off can’t afford to wait another year much less another four.

So we ask that you go to https://www.facebook.com/coal4trump/ and like Coal for Trump. We ask that you also join United Citizens for Coal at https://www.facebook.com/citizensforcoal/ and help continue the fight for a future for our coal miners and coal communities. 

Roger Horton, President, Citizens for Coal