To stave off the worst effects of the climate crisis, at least 80 percent of coal reserves must stay in the ground, according to a conservative estimate in the journal Nature. This means that coal miners would see their already declining industry all but disappear. The Green New Deal, the resolution put forward by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) and Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA) for an economy-wide mobilization to address the climate crisis, calls for a “just transition” that guarantees good, new jobs for coal miners. Some insist that the “just transition” start now, which is why they are supporting the American Miners Act.

Introduced in the Senate on January 3, the act protects the pensions of more than a hundred thousand coal miners whose retirement fund was depleted by the 2008 crash. It also rescues the health-care benefits of miners whose companies went bankrupt last year.

But you wouldn’t know about this bill, or its sister legislation in the House, from reading the New York Times, the Washington Post, or Politico, three influential outlets within the Beltway. None have reported on — or mentioned — the legislation since it was introduced in early January, even though it has the support of the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) and high-profile cosponsors like Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), and Ocasio-Cortez.