Overnight Energy: Coal industry group backs Trump

TRUMP GETS COAL ENDORSEMENT: A group representing West Virginia’s coal industry decided unanimously Thursday to throw its weight behind presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump in the presidential election.

The West Virginia Coal Association said the endorsement shows their faith that Trump can bring the state’s coal industry back from President Obama’s “War on Coal,” which they say Clinton would just continue.

{mosads}”Trump has said he will reverse the Democratic regulatory assault that has cost the coal industry more than 40 percent of our production and jobs since 2008,” Bill Raney, the group’s president, said in a statement.

“In contrast, Hillary Clinton’s proposals essentially double-down on the job killing Obama policies,” he said. “West Virginia can’t afford that and neither can the nation.”

Trump has pledged to put coal miners back to work, but has shared very few specifics about his plan, beyond a promise to review regulations from Obama’s Environmental Protection Agency.

“We’re going to get those miners back to work,” he said at a recent event. “The miners in West Virginia and Pennsylvania, which was so great to me last week, and Ohio and all over, they’re going to start to work again. Believe me. You’re going to be proud again to be miners.”

Read more here.

Elsewhere in West Virginia … : The Mountain State is shaping up to be a terrible one for Clinton.

Polling shows Bernie Sanders with a sizable lead in West Virginia, meaning its Democratic primary on Tuesday is likely to extend a presidential nominating contest Clinton had hoped to wrap up by now.

In a general election match-up against presumptive GOP nominee Trump, Clinton will be an underdog in the state, which has voted for Republican presidential candidates since 2000.

It wasn’t always this way; West Virginia used to be Clinton Country. But a shift in political fortunes there — and a March statement on shutting down coal mines as president — has hurt Clinton’s prospects there in 2016.

Read more here.

GORE: ‘WE’RE GOING TO WIN THIS’: Climate activist and former Vice President Al Gore has an optimistic view on the prospects for avoiding the worst of climate change.

“We’re going to win this,” Gore said Thursday at the Climate Action 2016 summit in Washington.

“It matters a lot how quickly we win this. Damage has been done, regrettably. … But we now clearly are on a path that is almost certainly going to move us away from [a] catastrophic outcome.”

Gore said he’s heartened by the expansion of renewable electricity generation and shifting public opinion on climate change.

The next step, he said, is to put more aggressive climate policies in place, including a carbon tax.

“We need to accelerate this transition dramatically,” he said. “There are ways to do it, we know how to do it. But we need to clear away the obstacles.”

Read more here.

ON TAP FRIDAY I: The Climate Action 2016 conference concludes in Washington. Speakers on Friday include Shaun Donovan, the director of the Office of Management and Budget, and John Morton, the senior director for Energy and Climate Change at the White House

ON TAP FRIDAY II: The Wilson Center holds an event on “climate, conflict and development.”

AROUND THE WEB:

The New York City Council approved a 5-cent fee on plastic bags on Thursday, the New York Times reports.

Jon Stewart is one big step closer to establishing a farm sanctuary in New Jersey, thanks to an agricultural board’s approval, the Asbury Park Press reports.

Southern California’s part of the San Andreas fault is very close to a major earthquake, researchers say, according to the Los Angeles Times.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT:

Check out Thursday’s stories…

-Gore on climate change: ‘We’re going to win this‘
-White House on Obama drinking Flint water: ‘The man was just thirsty’
-West Virginia coal group endorses Trump
-Fish and Wildlife to allow more wind-related eagle deaths
-US climate chief’s goal: ‘Set in motion’ climate work over next five years
-Poll: Most haven’t heard of Obama climate rule
-West Virginia is no longer Clinton country

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