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PJM Interconnection, which operates the U.S. electricity grid across all or parts of 13 states that include Kentucky, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia, has filed objections to the Trump administration’s coal-industry bailout proposal. The plan “appears aimed less at truly addressing resilience concerns and more at benefiting certain preferred generators and fuels and the industries they support,” PJM said.

"Our economic assessment remains the same today," says a spokesman for one of several owners of the Navajo Generating Station. "Operating the plant beyond 2019 would not be beneficial for their customers."

Homer City, Penn., is typical of communities facing difficult economic transition as its coal-fired power plant, faces likely closure. “Reality has triumphed over wishful thinking,” says one local coal broker.

The American Petroleum Institute, the “lobbying powerhouse for U.S. oil and gas producers” has joined with the Electricity Consumers Resource Council and other electricity-generation interests to opposed a Trump administration bailout for coal companies. “The proposal is anticompetitive,” adds the president of the Industrial Energy Consumers of America.

Eight former members of FERC, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, said a proposal by Energy Secretary Rick Perry to prop up coal and nuclear plants would distort markets, drive up prices, and undermine the transition to a modern energy economy.

Major companies in Ohio, an important consumer of Appalachian coal, are fighting a legislative proposal to slow the state’s transition to clean energy. Among them: Gap Inc., Ikea North America, Nestle, and Cliff Bar & Co. Ohio has also become a hotbed for companies that are turning entirely to renewable energy, including Facebook and General Motors.

The attorneys general of New Mexico and California have sued to restore rule reforms that would require coal companies to pay full royalties on coal taken from federal land. The Trump administration abruptly rescinded the reforms a few weeks after they took effect in January.

“I’ve turned West Virginia around,” the president says in a radio interview this week in which he asserts that the state is flourishing economically since he took office. Politico: “West Virginia’s senators have repeatedly acknowledged coal will never return to where it once was so it’s unclear what exactly Trump’s taking credit for here.”

An analysis published by researchers at the Brattle Group finds that Trump administration policy toward natural gas industry production will undermine coal companies, “leading to net mining employment losses of 13,000-16,000 jobs” compared to Obama administration policies had they been left in place.