Back in this circumstance called reality, what's actually happened in the energy sector is that much of the world has been moving away from coal for decades. U.S. mining jobs have been mostly in decline since the 1980s. The chief culprit isn't the EPA; it's competition within the energy sector. The rise of hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling has raised domestic production of natural gas and oil, while OPEC countries have been producing more oil as well. Cleaner-burning natural gas is simply a cheaper, less-polluting option for power plants and manufacturers, and that's proved costly for the coal mining companies, as many have slipped into bankruptcy.