Clinton, who has campaigned on increased investment in renewable energies, urged Congress to act before benefits for coal miners and their families expire.
“I firmly believe that if you spent your life keeping the lights on for our country, we can’t leave you in the dark,” Clinton said in a statement. “For more than a century, America’s coal miners have put their own health and safety at risk to provide affordable and reliable energy for the nation. They are entitled to the benefits they have earned and the respect they deserve.”
Unionized coal miners from 13 states and their families will converge on the Capitol today for a “Keep the Promise” rally, according to a statement from the United Mine Workers union.
In 1946, President Harry Truman promised coal miners lifetime retirement benefits to avert a lengthy post-World War II strike. As the coal industry has struggled, coal companies are avoiding providing health care and benefits to its workers, according to the union’s website.
“They [coal miners] were promised retirement benefits by the government and their employers,” Cecil Roberts, United Mine Workers president, said in a statement. “Those benefits are now at serious risk, and will begin running out at the end of the year. For many, that will force them to make cruel choices between buying life-saving medicine or buying food.”
In her statement, Clinton urges Republicans to stop stalling and vote on the Miners Protection Act introduced by U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin, D-West Virginia. The bill introduced last year transfers funds to pay mine workers’ pensions and ensure coal miners who lose health care after their companies file for bankruptcy are still eligible for other health benefits.
The bill would affect more than 30,000 retired miners in West Virginia, and tens of thousands more in Pennsylvania, Kentucky, Ohio, Illinois, Indiana, Virginia and Alabama, the Associated Press reported.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky blocked the bill last year and has said he's not going to fast-track a plan that some Republicans warn amounts to a pension bailout, the AP reported.
Last month, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump made a campaign stop in Abingdon to court favor with Virginia coal miners. Many of the miners on stage behind Trump wore hard hats and carried “Trump Digs Coal” signs.
The candidate bragged about his landslide victory in the West Virginia primary — a win he attributed to the heavy coal mining presence in the state.
The U.S. has lost about 200,000 mining jobs in the past two years because of President Barack Obama’s administration, Trump said in his speech. It’s time to bring those jobs back, he said.
“I know you’re discouraged,” Trump said. “Give it one more chance.”
During a CNN Town Hall in May, Clinton said if elected, her shift toward renewable energies would inevitably put some coal companies out of business, but she would work to find new job opportunities for coal workers.
Many coal miners were alarmed when they heard the part of Clinton’s remarks where she said, “we’re going to put a lot of coal miners and coal companies out of business, right?”
But she continued on to say America will not forget coal miners who worked in mines for generations, according to Politifact.
“Now we've got to move away from coal and all the other fossil fuels, but I don't want to move away from the people who did the best they could to produce the energy that we relied on,” she said.
By: Carmen Forman (The Roanoke Times).
Photo: Climate Change News.
Review: Emerging Market Formulations & Research Unit, FLAGSHIP RECORDS.
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