One of President Trumps many campaign promises was to bring back the coal industry. Under the Obama presidency the coal industry was severely hurt and overlooked. Many names were unable to weather this and ultimately went bankrupt. At one point in the states the majority of coal that was being produced was actually being produced by companies that had filed for chapter eleven protection.
Well Thursday President Trump began to make good on his promises. The President signed into law a cancellation of Obama's "Stream Protection Rule". The rule was basically to keep coal mining more than 100 feet away from streams and would not allow coal dumping into those streams. It was also a bit of a compliance nightmare for mining companies as it had many requirements for paying for environmental studies and cleaning up existing mines.
Trump did away with this measure on Thursday in a media spectacle where he commented that this was the first step to eliminating these terrible "job-killing rules for coal mining" which he promised would save many thousands of American jobs in the mines.
Agree or disagree with this rule, one thing is certain, it was good enough to begin to bring back some investors in coal stocks...Whats left of them anyways. Arch Coal Inc. (NASDAQ: ARCH) was one of the beneficiaries of the new rule and shares spiked ahead of and after the signing of the law. Thursday shares were higher by 3.28% and lately volume has been picking up as well.
As for the charts, Arch coal is still in about the middle of its range and has been trending lower since hitting highs back in November. While its early to tell if this is good enough to bring coal miners back to life, investors are betting that this wont be the last news out of Trump regarding this industry.