During President Trump’s first year back in the Oval Office, mining has played a large role. In his quest to amass rare earth minerals, he’s pressed Ukraine for mining rights and, lately, is eyeing a massive public investment in mines in Greenland.
Domestically, he’s displayed a penchant for coal, too. After an executive order hoping to “reinvigorate” a dying coal industry, his administration added metallurgical coal to a federal list of “critical minerals.”
The Trump administration also established a “National Energy Dominance Council” to try to promote extraction of things like coal and uranium through “cutting red tape” and eliminating "unnecessary regulation.”
“This president is the best friend mining ever had,” said Jarrod Agen, head of the council.
It brings to mind a common refrain among the families who do the actual work: “Are you a friend of the mines or a friend of miners?”
Latest research shows recent black lung deaths are even higher than expected
In December, researchers at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found nearly 2,000 deaths from coal workers’ pneumoconiosis from 2020 to 2023. It's an incurable lung disease commonly called “black lung” and, in its worst form, makes simply breathing a painful exercise.
Of those deaths, 72% were from people who had worked in the mining industry for most of their adult life. The researchers wrote that the actual number of deaths from black lung was “significantly higher than the expected number” based on previous research.
Researchers say the data “underscores the potential value of a comprehensive prevention program.”
So how about that “prevention program”?
For decades, toxic silica dust — crushed rock particles that are easily inhaled — has been known to cause black lung. Still, coal miners were legally allowed to be exposed to double the amount of dust compared to any other worker in America. In other types of mines, dust exposure wasn’t required to be monitored at all. Families of dead miners fought for years to change that.
In 2024, the U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration finalized a safety rule: the keystone of which was that all mine operations would be required to limit silica dust exposure to the same levels as every other worker.
"It is unconscionable that our nation's miners have worked without adequate protection from silica dust despite it being a known health hazard for decades," said former Secretary of Labor Julie Su.
But enforcement of that safety rule — the “teeth” behind it — has been indefinitely paused after a prolonged legal appeal led by a trade group for kitty litter. They claim the new safety measures would be expensive and cause “irreparable harm” to their business.
In a legal about-face from the Biden-era rule, Trump’s administration has done little to defend the rule in court. It even kept advocates away from the court battle who volunteered to defend it instead. Delay after delay ensued, including a lengthy pause when government lawyers rode out a 43-day long government shutdown.
The lengthy delays started frustrating advocates to the point that they held a rally in Washington D.C.
“The agency that is tasked with protecting coal miners does not even have the stomach to fight for [the new rule] themselves,” Brian Sanson, United Mine Workers of America president said at the rally. “Worse than that, they prevent the union from stepping in to do that job for them.”
In a legal brief, filed just before Thanksgiving, Trump’s mine safety agency told the court it will instead “engage in limited rulemaking to reconsider and seek comments on portions of the Silica Rule impacted by this appeal.”
“It's really disappointing, because we worked so hard to get the silica rule, and the companies had over a year to get ready for this,” said Vonda Robinson, vice president of the National Black Lung Association. “It's an early death sentence for coal miners. We're seeing younger and younger miners with complicated black lung.”
House Democrats accuse Department of Labor of “mindboggling” failure to enforce an mine company insurance rule
Meanwhile, House Democrats say they’ve heard another Biden-era safety rule designed to ensure coal companies pay health benefits to survivors of black lung is simply being ignored.
This federal rule became effective in January 2025. It requires self-insured coal companies to fully cover the potential liabilities for workers suffering from black lung. Most companies buy insurance, but some are self-insured — and sometimes far underinsured.
In the past, they’ve escaped paying those black lung health benefits by declaring bankruptcy. When that happens, the federal government steps in.
"We know what happens when coal companies under-insure their black lung liability, taxpayers end up footing the bill,” said Rebecca Shelton with the Appalachian Citizens Law Center. “Worse, if we don't hold companies accountable for paying their employees' black lung benefits, then what incentive do they have to prevent their employees from getting this horrendous disease?"
Minority members of a workforce committee sent the U.S. Department of Labor a letter asking for proof the so-called “self-insurance rule” was being enforced.
“There are essentially rumors that you’re not requiring posting of appropriate collateral,” Democratic Rep. Bobby Scott said in an interview. “Are you or are you not? We haven’t heard, they haven’t answered and so we suspect that they’re not.”
The response deadline has blown by without a response, according to Democratic lawmakers. A spokesperson confirmed that the “department has received the letter and is reviewing it.”
McGarvey and others file bills for survivor benefits
Rep. Morgan McGarvey, the sole Democrat in Kentucky's congressional delegation, introduced two bills related to federal black lung health benefits.
One measure would ease a lengthy legal application process for black lung victims and adjust the benefit amounts to keep up with inflation. The other would improve access to those benefits for the survivors of deceased coal miners who succumb to black lung.
“When families are navigating the grief of losing a loved one and the financial worries that come with it, they shouldn’t be subjected to a lengthy and expensive legal process just to prove what we already know: miners work in dangerous conditions to power this country and pay for it with their own health and lives,” said Rep. McGarvey in a statement.
Similar measures to update federal black lung health benefits have been proposed in Congress for nearly a decade, without any significant traction.
Vonda Robinson with the National Black Lung Association says, still, she’s hopeful.
“We're not being still. We're not giving up. You're not going to shut us up,” Robinson said. “We're going to keep on until we get what is deserved for our miners.”
