Arguably, the US has Trump as president due to coal interests. But I doubt that the next administration will go as far as Obama did in trying to shut down the coal industry - too politically risky to lose PA again. This political-economic dynamic does imply that there will be a tipping point were coal-fired power plants shut down en masse. I wish that day would come sooner rather than later since our air quality sucks.
I always wondered why this didn't happen in every area with coal. I get many of these areas are not the best for solar or wind but if you provide a way for these people to transition to something different you're far more likely to win their support versus the narrative that ran rampant in the election where no one cared about the coal miners.
Well we're going to continue to need coal in possibly decreasing amounts for the next couple of decades. No way are we decommissioning all coal-fired generating any time soon. That should be enough time for natural attrition to handle the current mine workers. The effort should be in getting young people interested/trained in something else before they follow their fathers into the mines.
As long as folks like Trump keep selling them on the dream of "coal forever", they're not going to listen to common sense. Politicians see them only as votes and not as constituents to be cared for.
The UK went from 1.2 million[1] workers in the coal industry in 1920 to nearly zero now. It was painful at times though and many of the former coal towns have never really recovered.
