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 Eight years later, a Reuters review of her recent campaign
speeches and policy announcements shows that the great-granddaughter
of a Welsh coal miner is now talking about the coal industry in the
past tense.
The little-noticed shift in rhetoric speaks volumes about how the
United States' energy landscape has changed since Clinton last
campaigned in 2008: oil and gas fracking have exploded and cheap
natural gas has taken a huge bite out of coal.
In the intervening years the Obama administration has also proposed
aggressive measures to tamp down greenhouse gas emissions from
fossil fuels like coal, while once-powerful coal companies like Arch
Coal, which declared bankruptcy last week, have lost their political
clout.
The shift by Clinton is not without significant political risk. She
will have to walk a fine line in trying to please the progressive
activists she needs to win her party's nomination and working-class
"swing" voters whose support will be crucial for the general
election in November 2016. Ohio and Pennsylvania, in particular,
have a lot of electoral votes, which are key to electing a new
president.
Mindful of that, Clinton has been careful to pay tribute to the
contribution coal miners have made to the American economy, but she
has also made clear that they should be helped to find new jobs, and
a new way of life.
 Ed Rendell, former Democratic governor of Pennsylvania and Clinton
ally, said an economic case for addressing climate change could
resonate in his state, where the coal industry employs more than
36,000 directly and indirectly, according to the Pennsylvania Coal
Alliance.
"Citizens, coal miners and executives are not dumb and they see the
handwriting on the wall. Someone needs to tell them the truth and
make it clear," he said in an interview.
Clinton’s campaign declined to comment on the shift in her coal
message or how she plans to appease both environmentalists and coal
workers.
"VOODOO ENVIRONMENT CONCERNS"
Clinton was quick last week to praise President Obama's stricter
rules on coal-fired power plants, vowing to both defend and build on
them. Her stance won plaudits from environmentalists within her
party, but unions, a key constituency, are concerned she has yet to
say how tougher climate rules will affect coal industry jobs.
"We would like to see some more specifics regarding her energy
policies," said Phil Smith, a spokesman for the United Mine Workers
Association, which represents about 80,000 workers.
Roland "Butch" Taylor, a business manager at the Plumber &
Pipefitters Local 396, a union in Boardman, Ohio, said he hopes
Clinton does not cater solely to "voodoo environment concerns."
"A candidate should be pushing for clean coal technology until
alternative energy is available," Taylor said.
In 2008, Clinton triumphed in the Democratic primaries in West
Virginia, Kentucky, Ohio and Pennsylvania with a promise to make
coal cleaner.
She told the environmental magazine Grist then: “You have got to
admit that coal — of which we have a great and abundant supply in
America — is not going away.”
She is no longer saying that but neither is she fully embracing the
agenda of environmentalists in her party who want her to turn her
back completely on fossil fuel industries.
Clinton was pressed at a town hall in Dover, New Hampshire, last
month about why she had not promised to move more quickly to curb
greenhouse gas emissions.
"I know what the right answer in terms of getting votes would've
been," Clinton responded.
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Holding up her hand to calm agitated activists, she added, "It's
really easy to say 'yeah, let's ban all of these fossil fuel
extractions’ and forget about all the people who are employed, who
have jobs that rely on the energy."
But Clinton said that on climate, as on other issues, "I am going to
tell you what I believe, and some people will like it, and some
people may not like it."
The line drew applause that overtook chants from the dozen or so
climate activists in the room.
Clinton's Republican opponents are almost certain to use her support
of Obama's new measures to restrict greenhouse gas emissions from
power plants to say she is part of what they call Obama's "war on
coal."
CLINTON'S APPALACHIAN ROOTS
Clinton has personal ties to the Appalachian region where the mining
industry thrived for decades. She often talks about her
grandfather's work in a lace mill in coal-dependent Scranton,
Pennsylvania and her childhood summer vacations spent at a cottage
in the area.
"We need to say to people in coal country: 'We are grateful for your
service,'" Clinton said at a New Hampshire house party last month.
"They made it possible for this country, starting in the 19th
century, to become an economic engine of prosperity," she said.
"We've got to say 'what can we do to help you? How can we help you
have a better future? What kind of investments can we help bring to
coal country? How can we give you a stake in the future?"
Clinton has hinted that her climate plan - which she has yet to
fully unveil - will be as much about focusing on boosting the middle
class as it will be about the environment.
She plans in the coming months to release details of an initiative
to protect the health care and pensions of coal workers.
She has also proposed eliminating capital gains taxes to encourage
investment in hard-hit industrial states known as the Rust Belt, as
well as expanding tax credits to prevent them from "spiraling
downward after a major economic shift or plant closing."
Clinton met privately recently with a group of Capitol Hill
Democrats and pitched them a rough outline of her climate plan.
U.S. senators Tim Kaine of Virginia and Joe Manchin of West Virginia
both praised Clinton's recognition of coal's contribution to the
U.S. economy but said any plan could not abandon the coal industry
immediately, since it still provides one-third of the country's
energy.
"I can't tell you how much I appreciated hearing a presidential
candidate of her stature being able to recognize how we got to where
we are today and how we move forward without leaving anybody
behind," Manchin said.
(Reporting By Valerie Volcovici and Amanda Becker, editing by Caren
Bohan and Ross Colvin)
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