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WV miners have high hopes for Trump

BECKLEY, W.Va. — For 26-year-old Cody Sizemore, voting for Donald Trump for president came down to a single issue: coal.

Pumping gas in Summersville Sunday afternoon, Sizemore said it was a vote to keep a roof over his family’s head and food in their stomachs. The father of two children, ages 4 and 2, said Trump’s campaign promise to bring back coal was why he was a first-time voter Tuesday.

“I don’t know if [Trump] can really bring coal back, but him just saying that coal miners are struggling was good to hear,” Sizemore said, acknowledging he was unaware of what Trump’s energy policy was in general and plans for coal specifically.

In late September, Trump outlined his energy policy during a speech in Pittsburgh. There, candidate Trump said his administration would have a pro-fossil fuel and anti-regulation attitude.

“I will introduce an America first energy plan,” Trump told a group of about 1,000 energy insiders.

That plan includes rolling back all “unnecessary” federal regulations for both the shale and coal industries, a move that could create upward of 500,000 jobs and add $100 billion to the U.S. gross domestic product, Trump said. Additionally, Trump promised to ease environmental regulation for coal mining.

“I will rescind the coal mining moratorium, the excessive Interior Department stream rules and conduct a top-down review of all anti-coal regulations issued by the Obama administration,” he said to a round of applause.

Coal mining jobs are opening up. In recent weeks, several metallurgical mines restarted after being shuttered and mining jobs fairs are now common ads on the radio. Used to the boom or bust cycle of the mines, Sizemore has one question: How long will the uptick continue? He is currently mining coal in a Kanawha County mine, but through a temporary service and traveling about 2.5 hours daily.

“I want the industry to pick up again like it was a few years back,” he said. “I have two kids now, no insurance. Back in 2010, I was 20 years old, making enough to support a kid and a wife and had extra cash. I hope [Trump] can return that way of living to us miners.”

In Pineville, Allen Casey, 56, voted for Trump because he is tired of “used to be.” Wyoming County used to be coal country, thousands of men used to be employed by the mines and there used to be job security. At its zenith, Wyoming County had scores of mines employing thousands of miners. Today, one mine is in operation employing fewer than 100 miners.

“Washington is killing us,” Casey said of clean air and water regulations. “Trump is anti-Washington, so he will be good for us miners.”

In Nicholas and Wyoming counties, Trump received more than 80 percent of the vote, according to the unofficial results. He carried West Virginia by 69 percent.

Other miners believe Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton would have eliminated more coal mining jobs and sent the region into a bigger downward economic spiral.

“You heard what she said; she was going to put a lot of coal miners out of jobs,” said Aaron Williams, 28, a former coal miner searching for a job back underground. “Would you vote for someone who said she was going to get rid of your job?”

Like Sizemore, Tuesday was the first time Williams voted in an election. The reason, he said, was to protect jobs and – to an extent – family tradition. He is the son and grandson of coal miners. When he was employed in a Nicholas County mine several years ago, he was proud “of continuing in the footsteps of my dad and grandpa.”

Nostalgia did tint the men’s answers. They spoke passionately of working underground and with pride of riding to the mines’ face at the end of their shifts. They fear those days are over, but have high hopes President-elect Trump can halt the decline.

“I voted for who I thought was the best person for coal,” said Williams.

See more from The Register-Herald. 

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