Trump Just Escalated His War on Coal Miners. Their Unions Are Fighting Back.

The Trump administration’s feckless business-first, workers-last approach is leaving the nation’s coal miners to die—and now their unions are taking him to court.

Kim Kelly April 14, 2025



President Donald Trump unveiled a new barrage of executive orders last week aimed at revitalizing the nation’s ​“beautiful clean coal” industry. But in reality, it’s already clear that his empty words will do no such thing.

Flanked by burly white men outfitted in coal miners’ garb, the former reality TV star and failed real estate tycoon rhapsodized about his muddled plans to supercharge coal’s use and production, including scrapping environmental regulations that ​“undermine” its production and ensuring federal policy doesn’t ​“discriminate” against the fossil fuel industry.

The astonishing impracticality of this plan did not appear in any way to be a factor in Trump’s decision, which was still applauded by people who should know better (even if they’d never admit it) like coal industry honchos and U.S. Sen. Shelley Capito (R​-​W​.Va). As much as Trump likes to posture toward saving the coal industry, his administration’s actions this April have made it clear that they — and he — don’t actually care about coal miners themselves.

The very same day as Trump’s big coal announcement, the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) published a notice on its website informing stakeholders that the agency would be pausing the enforcement of its rule titled, ​“Lowering Miners’ Exposure to Respirable Crystalline Silica and Improving Respiratory Protection.” The rule would have cut the allowable exposure level of deadly silica dust—20 times more toxic than coal dust and a major cause of black lung disease among coal miners — in half.

FULL story: https://inthesetimes.com/article/trump-silica-rule-coal-miners-union