Obama made a deal with Richard Trumpk, former head of the UMW, current head of the AFL-CIO, to push the development of sub-bituminous coal, produced in the west, mostly on Indian land, managed by the federal government in exchange for killing off the high BTU coal, mined by private companies on private land in the East.
Peabody Energy sued the federal EPA over the hockey puck theory and the Manning e-mails, demanding that the EPA show new, verifiable proof of global warming and the role of coal in causing it.
Just before the law suit was to be decided the Obama administration stepped in and settled with Peabody, making the deal to facilitate the mining and export of Peabody coal in the west. Peabody divested their eastern subsidiaries, stranding the mine workers with no health coverage and no pensions.