While on the campaign trail, President Donald Trump made promises to revive the coal industry and put miners back to work. In the election, he swept the coalfields, carrying 69% of the vote in West Virginia, 70% in Wyoming and 63% in Kentucky. Miners were hopeful. Now, a little more than a year after President Trump took office, coal production is up slightly, by 8% in 2017, and Trump has fulfilled some of his campaign promises. However, there has not been a complete turnaround. At the end of the 2017, 27 coal-fired power plants were either scheduled to close or for conversion. The number of coal mining jobs is up a little, from 50,400 at the end of 2016 to 51,700 at the end of 2017, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
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