There’s precious little dignity left in coal

change our commitment to being environmentally responsible.”

Many states have their own mandates for increasing use of renewable energy.

They’re not backing down, either.

Automation, meanwhile, continues as a major threat to coal jobs. Even mountaintop removal — the environmental obscenity of shearing off mountains to get at coal — provides little employment. Explosives do the blasting. Earth-moving machines remove the coal and debris.

Mountaintop removal has leveled majestic landscapes in West Virginia, Kentucky and Tennessee. One can clean up a polluted river, but these mountains are gone forever.

Tossing environmental protections into a giant dumpster is both a lazy and a counterproductive way to spur economic development. Note that some of our fiercest competitors in manufacturing, such as Germany, have environmental laws that match or exceed ours.

Earlier in American history, coal powered the nation. To provide this energy, coal country gave and gave. There was a nobility to the grueling work of digging for coal — and to the people who performed it.

But America has moved on. Coal mining employment has plummeted, and the decline in demand for coal is irreversible. Even industry leaders concede that.

Thus, the tiny Trump base of coal workers finds itself in the undignified position of trying to push a product on a nation that no longer wants it.

At the same time, the Trump administration pursues plans to strip them of coverage for black lung disease.

And his budget would defund a program to spur economic development in Appalachia — a program that could open opportunities for 21stcentury employment.

Despite all this, Trump remains coal country’s guy. Let others explain. Most of America looks on the sad scene, scratching its head and wondering what’s in it for the miners. Follow Froma Harrop on Twitter @ FromaHarrop. She can be reached at fharrop@gmail.com.