The Donald Trump campaign finally released an energy plan this week in a poorly written and confusing press release. There is a lot of hyperbole and various logical fallacies included, and plenty of attacks on Hillary Clinton. Here is one passage:

“It’s a choice between sharing in this great energy wealth, or sharing in the poverty promised by Hillary Clinton.

You don’t have to take my word for it. Just listen to Hillary Clinton’s own words. She has declared war on the American worker.

Here is what Hillary Clinton said earlier this year: “We are going to put a lot of coal miners and coal companies out of work.”

She wants to shut down the coal mines.

And if Crooked Hillary can shut down the mines, she can shut down your business too.”

Dismissing the baseless “war on the American worker” statement, let’s examine the “coal miners out of work” statement, but look at it in the context of the rest of that statement. She has made speeches talking about a plan for the dying coal industry as America and the world transition into cleaner sources of energy, certainly more than this energy “plan” of Trump’s.

Hillary Clinton did say “we are going to put a lot of coal miners and coal companies out of work,” in what was a poor choice of words in a speech in West Virginia this year. However her meaning is completely different when you put that quote in its full context:

“So for example, I’m the only candidate which has a policy about how to bring economic opportunity using clean renewable energy as the key into coal country. Because we’re going to put a lot of coal miners and coal companies out of business, right?

And we’re going to make it clear that we don’t want to forget those people. Those people labored in those mines for generations, losing their health, often losing their lives to turn on our lights and power our factories.

Now we’ve got to move away from coal and all the other fossil fuels, but I don’t want to move away from the people who did the best they could to produce the energy that we relied on.”

Trump continues to believe that coal is a viable long term energy solution. Hillary Clinton is being realistic about the future of coal and trying to find a solution as that industry continues its slide. The domestic and international demand for coal is falling, and it’s not coming back. If you read that press release, Donald Trump doesn’t actually say what he plans to do, using the bulk of the release to rage against Obama and Clinton. Towards the bottom he spouts toothless rhetoric about making America wealthy and energy independent, but doesn’t have any facts or policy plans to back it up.

Sources:
https://www.donaldjtrump.com/press-releases/an-america-first-energy-plan
http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/article/2016/may/10/context-hillary-clintons-comments-about-coal-jobs/