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Fast Money & Foreign Objects
At a coal conference in West Virginia, a political appointee with the Energy Department did not mince words about the administration's priorities.
NATASHA GEILINGFEB 1, 2018, 10:32 AM
A WORKER IN THE COAL INDUSTRY HANDLES COAL. (CREDIT: SPENCER PLATT/GETTY IMAGES)
first reported by S&P Global, offer an unvarnished glimpse into the Trump administration’s priorities. A few hours after Matheney’s remarks became public, reports surfaced that the Trump administration was considering asking for a 72 percent cut to Department of Energy programs involving renewable energy research.
Trump is making ‘clean coal’ dangerously dirty
Clean coal isn't real, and the Trump administration is only making coal worse for the environment and public health.
As a candidate, Trump acted as a staunch proponent of the coal industry, campaigning heavily on the false idea that repealing Obama-era environmental regulations would help return jobs to hard-hit areas like Appalachia. As president, he has initiated dozens of environmental rollbacks, many of which are aimed at lessening regulatory burdens on the coal industry — repealing rules aimed at protecting streams from mining waste, for instance, and putting on hold stricter limits for mercury pollution from coal-fired power plants.
Under Trump, the Department of Energy initiated a study looking at the resiliency of the United States electrical grid, which some critics characterized as an attempt to blame renewable energy or environmental regulations for declines in the coal industry. The study, published in August, found that automation and low natural gas prices were largely responsible for the closure of coal-fired power plants. But that didn’t stop Secretary of Energy Rick Perry from proposing a rule that would have forced utilities — and ultimately, ratepayers — to essentially subsidize power plants that maintain at least a 90-day supply of fuel on site. The rule, which critics argued would have amounted to subsidies for coal and nuclear, was unanimously rejected by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) in January.
Despite the Trump administration’s bullish anti-regulatory agenda, however, coal jobs saw only a modest, short-lived increase in the last year — and in many coal-producing states, mining jobs actually continued to decline. Despite Trump’s regulatory rollbacks, experts expect the decline in coal jobs to continue as automation and cheap natural gas continue to make coal a less economically-viable energy source. Since Trump took office last year, dozens of coal-fired power plants have announced their intention to retire, citing unfavorable economic conditions and cheaper alternatives, like natural gas and renewable energy.
Trump appointee tells coal industry that his job is to be ‘an advocate’ for coal
NATASHA GEILINGFEB 1, 2018, 10:32 AM
A WORKER IN THE COAL INDUSTRY HANDLES COAL. (CREDIT: SPENCER PLATT/GETTY IMAGES)
first reported by S&P Global, offer an unvarnished glimpse into the Trump administration’s priorities. A few hours after Matheney’s remarks became public, reports surfaced that the Trump administration was considering asking for a 72 percent cut to Department of Energy programs involving renewable energy research.
Trump is making ‘clean coal’ dangerously dirty
Clean coal isn't real, and the Trump administration is only making coal worse for the environment and public health.
As a candidate, Trump acted as a staunch proponent of the coal industry, campaigning heavily on the false idea that repealing Obama-era environmental regulations would help return jobs to hard-hit areas like Appalachia. As president, he has initiated dozens of environmental rollbacks, many of which are aimed at lessening regulatory burdens on the coal industry — repealing rules aimed at protecting streams from mining waste, for instance, and putting on hold stricter limits for mercury pollution from coal-fired power plants.
Under Trump, the Department of Energy initiated a study looking at the resiliency of the United States electrical grid, which some critics characterized as an attempt to blame renewable energy or environmental regulations for declines in the coal industry. The study, published in August, found that automation and low natural gas prices were largely responsible for the closure of coal-fired power plants. But that didn’t stop Secretary of Energy Rick Perry from proposing a rule that would have forced utilities — and ultimately, ratepayers — to essentially subsidize power plants that maintain at least a 90-day supply of fuel on site. The rule, which critics argued would have amounted to subsidies for coal and nuclear, was unanimously rejected by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) in January.
Despite the Trump administration’s bullish anti-regulatory agenda, however, coal jobs saw only a modest, short-lived increase in the last year — and in many coal-producing states, mining jobs actually continued to decline. Despite Trump’s regulatory rollbacks, experts expect the decline in coal jobs to continue as automation and cheap natural gas continue to make coal a less economically-viable energy source. Since Trump took office last year, dozens of coal-fired power plants have announced their intention to retire, citing unfavorable economic conditions and cheaper alternatives, like natural gas and renewable energy.
Trump appointee tells coal industry that his job is to be ‘an advocate’ for coal
