Listen: Public radio show deals with coal’s uncertain future

• StateImpact Pennsylvania
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The public radio show Truth, Politics and Power took on the tenuous future of coal and coal miners in a recent episode, King Coal.

Host Neil Conan spoke with StateImpact Pennsylvania’s Reid Frazier about support President Donald Trump has garnered from coal miners and mining communities in Pennsylvania.

“There’s no doubt they placed a lot of blame on the Obama administration for the regulations on the coal industry,” Frazier said. “There is a sense that the Democrats–Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama–had moved on from coal. And this is a group that had been told for generations how important they were for providing for energy and power. Pennsylvania coal powered Pittsburgh’s steel mills. There is a sense that ‘hey, we’re important here–don’t forget about us.’”

They also discussed coal’s role in the economic and social life of coal mining communities, and the future of the industry in Pennsylvania.

Hear the segment at 32:00 here:

The episode also features Michael Grunwald, a senior staff writer for Politico Magazine, and Peter Shulman, an Associate Professor of History at Case Western Reserve University.

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