New York Post, Sunday, October 25, 2020nypost.coma mountain, the casual observer
would have no idea coal is being dug
at the Harvey Mine. And while cli-
mate-change activists blogging in
their homes believe they care more
about this land and water than min-
ers, the people who work here beg
to differ.
“We are the people who hunt, fish,
swim, hike and live here,” said Eric
Schubel. “We drink the water, we
build on the land — more than any-
one we want what we do to not hurt
the environment.”
Schubel began his career digging
underground and has since earned
his way to the top. He now serves as
CONSOL Energy’s vice president of
operations overseeing the entire
Pennsylvania Mining Complex that
includes the Harvey Mine.
Of Trump’s promise to bring back
coal, Schubel said he never expected
a miraculous resurgence. “How we
looked at it was, he was going to put
a stop to overregulation on our indus-
try. That’s how we read it,” he said.
“The Obama administration’s in-
tent was to phase the coal industry
out. Trump’s pledge meant he would
stop the bleeding,” he added.
The Trump administration even-
tually replaced Obama’s Clean
Power Plan with the Affordable
Clean Energy rule (ACE), which
aims to lower power sector emis-
sions by 11 million tons by 2030, or
between 0.7 percent and 1.5 percent.
And while Obama’s plan set strict
rules for how plants had to lower
their emissions, with measures such
as switching to cleaner power gener-
ation fuels or capturing carbon diox-
ide emissions, Trump’s rule insisted
on just one method: efficiency. Un-
der his plan, power plants had to
draw more energy from the same
amount of fuel.
Since then, many plants have im-
plemented new technologies that
make them more productive and
competitive. But critics say this is a
problem in itself — that by making
coal burning more profitable, Trump
has encouraged the burning of even
more of it, leading to greater envi-
ronmental damage.
Schubel said his industry knows
it must cut emissions, and Trump
has made it easier to do that. “He
was successful over the last four
years in rolling back some of the reg-
ulations and stopping that harm that
was being done to our industry,” he
said. “Although in my opinion, the
harm was almost irreparable. You
can’t turn back the hands of time.The best that you can hope for is that
it either slows or stops. That’s why
I voted for Mr. Trump the first time,
and that’s why I’ll vote for him
again.”A
RECENT study by the Alle-
gheny Conference found
Pennsylvania’s coal industry
supports about 17,000 jobs ei-
ther directly or indirectly. In addi-
tion, Pennsylvania’s oil and natural
gas industry fuels more than 322,000
direct and indirect jobs and contrib-
utes $45 billion to the state’s econ-
omy, according to a Pricewater-
houseCoopers analysis.
Those voters and their families
could swing an election.
Trump’s Democratic opponent Joe
Biden has his own unique baggage
here: As Obama’s vice president, he
was part of the administration that
killed coal and is as much a turn off
for these miners as Hillary Clinton
was in terms of trustworthiness and
respect. “He has been in the govern-
ment for almost 50 years and he re-
ally hasn’t done anything to help our
industry in all of that time,” said
Todd McNair, superintendent at the
Harvey Mine. “I don’t see how he’d
do a good job now.”
And, at Thursday’s presidential
debate, Biden didn’t help his cause
when he admitted: “I would transi-
tion away from the oil industry, yes.”
A Reuters/Ipsos poll shows Trump
cutting into Biden’s lead in Pennsyl-
vania, with 45 percent saying they’ll
back the president for reelection
compared to 49 percent who support
the former VP.
While many Americans believe
coal is dead, miners argue the country
depends on the survival of their in-
dustry, and that sense of belonging to
something meaningful and important
will energize them to vote this year.
“I’m a fourth-generation coal
miner,” McNair said. “In May of 1942,
just months after Pearl Harbor, there
was a massive mine explosion [and]
my great-grandfather was killed
along with 55 other men. My grand-
father was underground when it
happened. He tried to enlist to serve
in World War II but the military
wouldn’t take him. Why? Because he
was a coal miner. FDR knew that the
industrial surge to support World
War II was going to come from what
they dug in the mines.”
Vance agreed.
“I look at my job as patriotic. What
I do powers office buildings and
homes, the grocery stores where
people get their food, as well as
schools and churches and companies
that build things that build our coun-
try. We help keep the lights on and
keep people warm as well,” she said.
“Down there,” she added, pointing
to the earth below her, “this isn’t
about us. This is about who we serve,
about our work being part of some-
thing much bigger than ourselves.”Salena Zito is the author of “The Great Revolt:
Inside the Populist Coalition Reshaping American
Politics” (Crown Forum).When miners at the Harvey in
Pennsylvania were asked who
they were voting for, they
didn’t mince words.A DEEP
LOYALTY
“I am going to vote
for Donald Trump to
help keep my job.”— Bob Casino, 49,
of Bruceton Mills, W.Va.“Where Trump
goes we all go.”— Kevin Backus, 32,
of Mt. Lookout, W.Va.“Trump is the
answer.”— Rick Uphold, 60,
of New Freeport, Pa.“Trump — always
putting America
first.”— Andrew Yackuboskey, 37,
of Peters Township, Pa.Sara Vance, 33,
is a third-
generation coal
miner and mother
(inset above) in
Sycamore, Pa., who
voted for Trump in
2016 — and will do so
again next month.
She and her
compatriots at Harvey
Mine (below) see
their work as helping
to build America.Photos by Justin MerrimanHIM
AFP via Getty Images