[Joeri]

Also, those mines are heavily subsidized, basically $80K per year in subsidies / tax breaks per miner. Effectively they're being paid a government wage to keep mining.

What you're seeing here is a large section of the population that likes the idea of coal mining, and willing to spend a lot of tax money to keep that idea alive.

[lotsofpulp]

A large section of those states’ populations maybe. On a national level, they’re only relevant because of their ability to swing votes from one party to the other.