>>I personally watched Trump promise the people of West Virginia that coal would come back.
>>He did it more than once.
>>The second time, he had more people outside the convention hall than he had inside.
>>It was a cynical lie.
>>Barring some kind of miracle, coal will never come back and any simpleton can figure that out.

IMHO there are multiple uses for coal and multiple types/grades of coal.

If you're making steel, hard coal remains a good source of the required extreme heat and my understanding is that new coal mines in the US are for special metallurgical coals for this purpose. FWIW there was an anthracite coal mine in the South Island of NZ whose coal was so dense that the British Navy used it for battleships to increase speed by up to two knots. I'll bet you didn't know that. ;-) The coal is heavy and feels like a chunk of glass.

Only about 15% of coal is metallurgical and internationally the biggest source of pollutant/carbon from coal, is burning it for electricity. In the US there has been a huge fall in coal for electricity and therefore pollution as generators prefer cheaper natural gas. In response the coal industry has come up with various clean coal initiatives, but so far they're all expensive and represent "trick shots" compared to cheap natural gas.

Whether coal can come back for electricity depends on clean coal initiatives and cost. FWIW, the US has the biggest known reserves of coal that is relatively easy to mine and transport. It will be a shame if some use cannot be made of it.

Final point would be that sometimes we don't know what we don't know as we try to peer into the future. My anthracite story has an illustrative ending, since having the best anthracite lost its relevance when the battleships began burning diesel. ;-)