"Here’s what happened when state energy regulators, politicians and industry officials met with members of the Trump administration to discuss a future for coal."

"KINGSPORT, Tenn. — They came from states like Georgia, Kentucky, West Virginia, and Tennessee to rally around coal as U.S. coal use continues to tumble.

But Joe Giove III, with the U.S. Department of Energy, was having nothing of the doom and gloom talk about an industry on the slide.

This was the 40th year that the Southern States Energy Board met jointly with the Virginia coal industry, and a two-day conference of hand-wringing and searching for a new or renewed path for coal in a carbon-constrained world was under way. Giove was there to sell the use and necessity of coal, and that's what he did, relaying stories of how coal had become a misunderstood underdog and how losing too much coal threatens people's lives."

James Bruggers reports for InsideClimate News May 22, 2019. [2]