1 | Page We feel your pain: Environmentalists, Coal miners, and “embedded environmentalism” Solutions, 2016, 7(1), forthcoming Nives Dolšak Professor School of Marine and Environmental Affairs University of Washington Seattle nives@uw.edu Aseem Prakash Professor, Department of Political Science Walker Family Professor for the College of Arts and Sciences Director, UW Center for Environmental Politics University of Washington, Seattle aseem@uw.edu ____________________________________________________________________________ Why are some policies enacted quickly, while others are delayed or never enacted at all? One might argue that if the aggregate benefits of a policy exceed aggregate costs, the policy will be put into place. Yet, as political scientists note, policy enactment depends not necessarily on its aggregate benefits and costs, but also on how these benefits and costs are distributed across different sectors or industries. This is a critical insight in understanding why policies like those for climate change mitigation are stalling in the United States, and show varying progress across the world (Dolšak, 2009). Those hurt by mitigation policies have incentives to organize and protest against them, especially if they believe that they have been unfairly and disproportionately targeted. This includes those who work in fossil fuel industries, like mining. As Cecil Roberts (2014), the President of United Mine Workers of America (UMWA), who opposes federal regulations to regulate carbon