US steel industry decline and tariff protections (1970s–1980s)
US steelmakers faced decades of declining competitiveness against cheaper foreign producers. Presidents from both parties imposed tariffs, quotas, and bailouts — the trigger-price mechanism under Carter, voluntary restraint agreements under Reagan — to protect domestic mills.
Some plants survived and jobs were preserved temporarily, but steel employment fell from roughly 450,000 in 1979 to about 170,000 by 1985.
Protectionist measures could not reverse the underlying economics. The industry modernized with vastly fewer workers, and imports remained a permanent fixture.
Like steel, coal's problem is economic, not political. Government orders can delay closures, but they cannot make an uneconomic fuel competitive against cheaper alternatives — consumers absorb the cost either way.