John Oliver Exposes Trump's Biggest Lie About Coal Jobs
Donald Trump says he loves coal miners and wants to put them back to work, but John Oliver thinks the president is pretty clueless when it comes to what miners do every day.
The “Last Week Tonight” host even found a clip from the campaign trail of Trump pretending to do... well... something:
“He barely gets what mining is,” Oliver said. “He may well think it’s just running up to things that he wants and yelling, ‘Mine!’”
Oliver pointed out that Trump’s promise to create more mining jobs was built on a lie. Coal jobs aren’t in decline because of the regulations the industry likes to blame but due to market forces, such as cheap natural gas.
And when mines do open, automation means fewer human workers are needed to pull out the coal.
So what’s really going on?
Oliver takes an in-depth look at the issue in the video above.
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10. Florida
> 2014 total electricity generation:231,062 GWh
> Coal as pct. total electricity generation: 22.5%
> Natural Gas as pct. electricity generation: 61.0%
Florida — the third-largest consumer of energy in the country — generated more than 52 thousand GWh of coal energy in 2014, 10th most of any state. However, there are no coal mining operations in The Sunshine State. All the coal burned in the state is shipped by barge and rail from other major mining states, primarily Illinois, West Virginia, and Kentucky. Florida is one of the most populous states in the country. So while the state produced the 10th highest amount of energy from coal in the country, this energy accounted for just 22.5% of the state’s electricity generation– well below the share of coal-based electricity generation nationwide of 38.7%. Natural gas is of greater significance in Florida. More than 60% of the state’s energy came from natural gas, the fourth highest share in the country.
Read more at 24/7 Wall St.
7. West Virginia
> 2014 total electricity generation:81,162 GWh
> Coal as pct. total electricity generation: 95.5%
> Natural Gas as pct. electricity generation: 0.8%
Last year, West Virginia generated the 19th most energy out of all states, producing roughly 81 thousand GWh. The state, however, generated the seventh most energy from coal, or 77,510 GWh. This amounted to 95.5% of West Virginia’s electricity generation, making West Virginia the most coal-dependent state in the country. This may not be surprising given the scope of the state’s coal mining industry. The state’s Appalachian Plateau region contains rich natural gas and coal deposits, and no state east of the Mississippi yields more coal each year than West Virginia. Roughly a quarter of the state’s coal stays in West Virginia, and the rest is shipped elsewhere to be turned into electricity. Consequently, while the state has just 0.5% of the country’s population, its resources are used to generate about 5% of total U.S. energy production.
Read more at 24/7 Wall St.
5. Kentucky
> 2014 total electricity generation:90,737 GWh
> Coal as pct. total electricity generation: 92.0%
> Natural Gas as pct. electricity generation: 2.7%
With 92% of Kentucky’s electricity coming from coal, only West Virginia relies more heavily on coal to keep the lights on. The state is the third largest producer of coal behind West Virginia and Wyoming, and one out of every four coal mines in the country can be found within the state. Roughly two-thirds of all coal mined in the state is exported. Apart from a small amount of hydroelectric energy, the state has almost no renewable energy generation at all.
Read more at 24/7 Wall St.
4. Illinois
> 2014 total electricity generation:202,352 GWh
> Coal as pct. total electricity generation: 43.2%
> Natural Gas as pct. electricity generation: 2.7%
The fifth most populous state in the country, Illinois is a large consumer of energy. The state generated, 87.4 million MwH from 57.4 million tons of coal last year. Over the course of the last decade, nuclear power and coal have been alternating as the state’s the leading energy source. Last year, however, more than 48% of the Illinois’ electricity came from nuclear power, while 43.2% came from coal. No other state in the country derives more electricity from nuclear power, and only three other states derived more electricity from coal in 2014.
Read more at 24/7 Wall St.
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This article originally appeared on HuffPost.
