Trump Administration Is Weighing Emergency Aid for Some Coal Plants

[IronLionZion]

32. I'm from Western PA, grew up with coal miners

I get it. It's a difficult situation but there are opportunities for other jobs and training in other fields that are often free or low cost at community colleges. I moved away at 18. I still did jobs that literally had no other US citizens working there but I managed somehow.

My friend's dad made him work in the mines during summers in high school specifically to see how difficult it is physically so that he would be motivated to study to do something else. Even uneducated mining families knew 20 years ago that coal was a dying industry and wanted their kids to learn something else. Even now, I have several coworkers whose families are still in West Virginia and Kentucky and had coal histories but wanted their kids to do something else.

The people working in the plants and transportation would have transferable skills to transport other stuff.

I firmly believe the subsidies are only delaying the inevitable for a very short term. That money is better used in retraining them for a different field in the skilled trades: plumbing, electrical, welding, construction, etc.