The industry WANTS the dollar coin. They've lobbied for it for decades. They've been knocked down by the other lobby, the "Save The Greenback" coalition which was primarily backed by Trent Lott and Ted Kennedy's factions.
Why Lott and Kennedy? Lott represented cotton growers, who made the cotton that went into the paper that was manufactured by Crane, the only government-approved mill that could make US Currency stock. Guess where Crane is located?
Everyone in the business knew that we couldn't get traction on the dollar coin until the paper dollar is killed. Paper dollars wear out every 18 months as opposed to 30 years for a minted coin. Yet, here we are. Now there's the stigma of "oh, these dollar coins keep failing, let's just stop this nonsense." Understand the precise reason why they've failed and we can fix this.