Watch John Oliver Expose Trump Administration's Coal Industry Lies
- by Earnest Huff
- in Culture
- — Jun 21, 2017
The host dives into the much-needed distinction between coal, coal miners, and coal companies by looking at how those interests often collide. "So that 50,000 new jobs claim is actually off by 48,700 - which for this administration, is actually uncharacteristically accurate".
Now that he's in office, Trump has created some 1,300 coal jobs (which Oliver noted is far less than the number he claims to have created) and cited coal mining as one reason for pulling out of the Paris Climate Agreement. Using a mix of statistics and old Trump quotes, Oliver implored the president to "stop lying" to America's miners.
Oliver then highlighted how the fossil fuel energy industry is becoming increasingly automated, and explained why helping the coal industry doesn't mean you are helping miners. Obama's regulations didn't have as much to do with furthering the decline - Oliver cites other factors such as declining natural gas prices, and the rise of renewable energy sources.
On Sunday's "Last Week Tonight", host John Oliver discussed how Trump's rhetoric about bring back coal mining jobs is not only dishonest, but that he may not even understand what a miner actually does. But most people don't have the imagination-or whatever-to leave their mine.
Citing job statistics that the Trump administration claims they "brought back", Oliver said: "Those numbers are bulls***, the Bureau of Labor Statistics have the actual number of coal jobs created since a year ago has been just 1,300 so that "50,000 new jobs" plane was off by 48,700 which for this administration is actually uncharacteristically accurate".
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"Okay, let me stop you right there", Oliver said.
On Last Week Tonight John Oliver looked at coal, or as he called it "cocaine for Thomas the Tank Engine". "And Trump didn't create them, he just remembered 12 times in his life he saw a lobster". Murray's lawyers sent Oliver a cease and desist letter prior to the show airing.
"Stop telling them that their jobs are all coming back when they're not, stop telling them that coal is clean when it isn't, and stop pretending that this isn't an industry in the middle of a painful-albeit necessary-transition".
"So as we have been explicitly told to cease and desist, let us do neither of those things and let's talk about Bob Murray".