By Bill Maher

Peabody Energy, the world’s largest coal company, filed for bankruptcy last week. It was worth $20 billion in 2008; now it’s worth $38 million. According to Robert Murray, the chief executive of poison at Murray Energy, “Five years ago our industry was worth $69 billion. As of today it’s $4.8 billion. We’ve lost 94 percent of our market capitalization in five years.”

This is all a long-winded way of saying, “Happy Earth Day, Earthlings!”

Coal is the dirtiest fossil fuel, and it’s all but dead in the United States. It’s not doing well in China, either. Coal bet big on China, and China looked like it was betting big on coal, but its economy collapsed, and its leaders got sick of wearing masks all the time, so they changed course.

Part of what killed it was fracking, but it was also regulation, and investment in renewables. As Murray put it, “The largest reason for the decline of the United States coal industry is the Obama administration and the Democrat Party and the Democrats in Washington, D.C.”

This is the definition of hatred worth welcoming. One of President Obama’s greatest achievements is winning the War on Coal, but he can’t brag, because then he’d have to admit he had a War on Coal. But it’s important liberals brag about it, to puncture the narrative that it’s too late to do anything about climate change. The headlines about climate change keep getting worse, but the actions we’re taking in the U.S. and around the globe keep getting better.

Also, this is a good example of why the question isn’t, “Should the government pick winners and losers?” but, “Which loser do we declare war on next?” I say Big Oil. Obama is in Saudi Arabia this week – no better time than the present.