Just close your eyes and imagine mountaintop removal coming to a Great Smoky Mountains peak near you.
The Trump administration is making an aggressive push to reinvigorate the struggling American coal industry and exploit commercial opportunities on public lands by encouraging more coal mining on federal property.
Not that we need that coal, mind you. Coal is to 21st century energy what buggy whips became to 20th century energy once gasoline engines sputtered onto roadways.
Nonetheless, Trump continues to stroke his dwindling base by rolling back environmental and conservation regulations in the name of fake-making America great again.
To be clear, we’re not saying the peaks of the Smokies should be lined with alternative energy windmills either. The Smokies should be preserved as the beautiful public park it is. But one must acknowledge that at least as a wind or solar park, it would provide far more new and good-paying jobs than coal ever will. Wind jobs outnumber coal jobs in more than 20 states, and solar jobs outnumber coal jobs in almost two-thirds of states. Together, they beat coal in at least 40 states – including Tennessee and Georgia – according to the 2017 U.S. Energy and Employment Report.