If you ever read books about Sherlock Holmes, the weather played a part of the descriptions. One of the reasons London was foggy was people used coal to heat their homes. The upside is homes were warmer, the downside is the air was foggy for longer periods of time. If you look at pictures from LA or Bejing, both of those cities are built in bowls – the mountains surround the cities and the air pollution stays until the winds blow it away. Then all is good. President Trump has used the coal industry as a political pawn and wants to mine more coal. Although the reality is for an underground mine, there are machines which do the digging and for strip mining, there are environmental concerns when the coal has been taken away from the deposit.

In an article by John Raby and Leach Willingham of the Associated Press, the Trump administration wishes to help the struggling coal industry.

Particularly in the western states, the US government owns most of the lands, and an executive order allowed more mining on federal lands. At one time, more than half of the power generation facilities burned coal to generate heat to turn turbines to make electricity. Many coal plants have switched to natural gas because prices are low and the US has great resources of natural gas. However, there are coal plants still operating. The administration allowed the nearly 70 older coal plants to keep operating by the way of a 2 year exemption to reduce emissions of toxic chemicals.

The US Energy Information Administration produces data every year and for example in 2014, US production was 907,000 metric tonnes, by 2023 it had fallen to 524 metric tonnes or by half.

President Trump seems to think of coal employment at its peak in the 1920’s when there were 900,000 miners. In the 1950’s it had fallen to 350,000. In 2023 the number was 45,476. The states with the most mines are West Virginia, Kentucky and Wyoming.

Elon Musk’s DOGE decided to save money on the mining safety agency MSHA by ensuring fewer inspectors inspect the mines and with less frequency.

Under President Carter, a fund was set up to restore land damaged by strip mining and reclaim closed coal mines. The agency responsible is called Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement and was active in Lexington, Kentucky and Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, in every industry alternatives exist. For generations, immigrants came to America to work in the coal mines. The work paid but it was hard on bodies and never paid well, however it did allow coal to be mined. The process changed with the abilities of machines to do the work and more of it, which is better for everyone in the industry. It is the reason why there are fewer mine disasters, which is a good thing. If you invested in the coal industry, you will likely have long term holdings as the companies have consolidated to stay in business. Technology may bring new uses for coal, but that is still a pipe dream.

There are more questions than answers, till the next time – to raising questions.