President Donald Trump has been adamant in voicing support for coal mining.

From his first campaign, he has talked a lot about the importance of the industry as a domestic energy source. There’s also no underestimating the importance of speaking to coal miners when courting votes.

While federal statistics tell us there are only 5% of the miners the U.S. had 100 years ago, the legacy of coal mining still speaks to people who grew up connected to it. Defend coal mining and you can win the hearts of people in other fields whose dads and grandpas worked there. There are also the steelworkers whose livelihoods are still tied to coke.

Mining areas stepped up for Trump in the 2016 and 2024 elections.

And so it was confusing when the Elon Musk-helmed Department of Government Efficiency placed 34 Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) offices on a list for lease termination. Four of those offices were in Pennsylvania, including one in Hempfield.

Since 1977, the MSHA has been tasked with one overarching mission: Keep miners healthy, uninjured and alive. According to the agency, there were 242 miners killed in 1978. In 2022, 29 miners lost their lives. That’s an 88% decrease.

Today, the Pennsylvania offices are no longer listed for lease termination. The General Services Administration and MSHA could not be reached to say why the offices were no longer listed.

That leaves questions about the offices themselves. What is their future? Is this a brief reprieve or a pivot from closing them entirely? Will they be merged together or with others? The Hempfield office already covers multiple states.

But it also contributes to ongoing confusion about mining and its place in the Trump landscape.

In April, the president signed an executive order: “Reinvigorating America’s Beautiful Clean Coal Industry.” It also amended a March executive order and directed the Chair of the National Energy Dominance Council (a group created by another order in February) to designate coal as a mineral. Coal isn’t a mineral but a sedimentary rock, however this would give coal the same expedited permitting given to critical earth minerals like uranium and gold.

Also in April, MSHA announced a four-month delay of enforcement of upgrades to protect miners from silica dust, known to cause potentially fatal diseases including silicosis.

Then there is Trump’s attention to steel, with the recent Nippon Steel-U.S. Steel partnership deal. Making steel requires taking metallurgical coal to make coke to fuel furnaces. Less than 10% of U.S. coal is metallurgical, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

The administration should clarify its attitude toward coal. Without miners, there is no mining. That can mean less fuel for electricity and less of the materials needed to turn iron into steel. Without MSHA, will miners be able to do their jobs safely?

If the products of mining are critical to a Trump economy, then miners and their safety have to be a priority.

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