But on his first day in office, Donald Trump scrapped Biden’s clean energy and environmental programs, which he lambasted as woke, anti-American liberal hoaxes.

The 2022 cash injection came through the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), Biden’s landmark climate and infrastructure legislation, and was designed to help revitalize and strengthen former coal communities over the long haul.

It was the largest investment in Appalachia since the 1960s’ “war on poverty” under Lyndon Johnson.

but like many blue-collar regions is now part of the loyal Maga base who believed Trump when he pledged to resuscitate coal country and put American first.

Trump has won big in West Virginia in the past three general elections, securing every county in 2024 with an average of 70% of the vote – the highest percentage any party has won in the state’s history. His vote share was even larger in rural counties including Clay and Wayne, which Huntington straddles.

So you’d expect anger at Trump but you’d be wrong !

yet many of those interviewed by the Guardian blame Washington politics generally rather than Trump.

  • Tollana1234567@lemmy.today
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    13 hours ago

    coal has been largely been replaced by natural gas/and oil, not even green energy yet. the gop has a stranglehold because they keep making empty promises.

  • zd9@lemmy.world
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    1 day ago

    Deep MAGA country will kill themselves with dirty air, no jobs (and drug addiction that comes from that), and corporate overreach polluting their food and water, all to “oWn ThE lIbS”

    They must be so tired of winning huh. Fuck these idiots, they deserve every piece of suffering they get from this. That’s the only way these people ever learn, when it personally impacts them, and even still that might not teach them.

    • Hazor@lemmy.world
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      21 hours ago

      I live in the south. All the Republican voters I meet are either people who think they’re wealthy enough to benefit from Republican tax policies, or (much more commonly) have been taken up by the propaganda machine and genuinely believe that Trump is a good Christian man who cares about the working class and is tirelessly working to Make America Great Again after immigrants and Obama made it not great.

      • Scrubbles@poptalk.scrubbles.tech
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        15 hours ago

        What’s sad is I’m doing moderately okay I would say on the coast - and I know I am far out of reach of getting any of those tax cuts. They have no idea how much they’re getting duped to think that they’re even remotely close to getting anything.

  • MushuChupacabra@lemmy.world
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    1 day ago

    yet many of those interviewed by the Guardian blame Washington politics generally rather than Trump.

    Normally I’d offer two in the thoughts and one in the prayers, but in this case, I hope that they marinate in the consequences that they voted for.

  • CapnClenchJaw@lemmy.world
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    1 day ago

    I heard that the clean coal movement was a massive scam, and there’s no scientific merit to it.

    • human@slrpnk.net
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      1 day ago

      In 2022, the Biden administration earmarked billions of dollars to help revitalize and strengthen former coal communities. The objective was to lay down building blocks for the region to transition from extractive industries like coal and timber to a hub for solar and other advanced energy technologies, with a view to long-term economic, climate and social resilience.

    • zd9@lemmy.world
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      1 day ago

      Just one of hundreds of green washing marketing methods (aka lying).

      Just like the term “natural gas”, which the industry has pushed so people don’t think it’s that bad because it’s natural. It’s methane gas from fossil fuel, which is actually like 80x more potent than carbon dioxide.

      • Aljernon@lemmy.today
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        22 hours ago

        When it leaks. When it burns, it produces less pollution than things like coal or petrol.

        • zd9@lemmy.world
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          21 hours ago

          Yes. But when you have highly pressurized gas, it leaks at every step of the pipeline from extraction, transmission, to end uses. Methane leaks are a huge problem.

          • Aljernon@lemmy.today
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            21 hours ago

            Fair enough. I never saw much point to piping gas to residential neighborhoods but then I grew up in a place that electrified early because of abundant hydropower.