That’s because we generate less than 11% of our electricity from coal, compared to 33% in the USA, 70% in China, 65% in India and 45% in Germany.
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With less fanfare, Trump’s executive order also lifted a moratorium on issuing new coal leases for federal lands. It could take years for the Environmental Protection Agency to undo regulations in the face of legal actions already foreshadowed by a coalition of states, including NY and California.
Days after U.S. President Donald Trump dismantled countrywide climate-change policies, Bloomberg said mayors are going beyond national government regulations to reduce greenhouse gases blamed for global warming for political gain. Since the average age when American coal-fired plants are scrapped is 58 years, half of them will soon be gone no matter what Trump does, and even he can not make it economically attractive to build new ones.
“And if I’m not going to build new ones, eventually there won’t be any”.
Since being elected, Trump has been mum on the Paris deal and the executive order does not address it.
But the key point they make is that wiping out the regulation necessitates more than just the president’s signature.
A report prepared by the Sierra Club and Greenpeace published last week found there was a 48 percent decline in the number of planned coal units in India and China and a further 62 percent decline in construction starts with the drop mainly attributed to changed policies in China and India. About half of that 26 per cent cut would have come in Trump’s first and maybe only term (2017-20), so say 13 per cent.
The Obama administration rules were meant to cut carbon dioxide from power plants by a third from 2005 levels by 2030.
Scientific American analyzed the Clean Power Plan and agreed, concluding that Obama’s plan didn’t go far enough and would fail to prevent catastrophic climate change. As demand for natural gas grows and as export markets open up for gas, you will see natural gas prices go up.
Shipments of USA metallurgical coal, used in the production of steel, have recently shown up in China following a two-year hiatus in part to offset banned shipments from North Korea and temporary delays from cyclone-hit Australian producers. Basically, it is the same thing the Obama administration was seeking in its Clean Power Plan – Assurances that the Paris accord provides a place and a role for the coal industry in low-emission coal-fired power plants and financial support for carbon capture and storage technology. The CPP halted construction on new coal-fired power plants while closing hundreds of plants already in existence. The energy industry now prefers natural gas to coal.
President Trump is moving forward with his plan to save the fossil fuel industry by removing the Obama administration’s Clean Power Plan. The White House also signals it will roll back higher fuel efficiency standards for the auto industry, and the Trump budget proposal would gut the Environmental Protection Agency.
“There may not be immediate plans for utilities to bring on more coal, but the future is always uncertain in this market”, he said. NY leaders, for example, have been talking about what to do with more than $100 million in revenue from the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, a northeast carbon cap-and-trade program. That reflects the dramatically falling costs of wind, solar and other renewable energy sources.
This is what makes the environmental hysteria in Canada – and the US – over our oil sands so absurd.
Trump has suggested the decision to remove regulations that have impeded the growth of coal would make America great again, adding that he is the “last shot for the miners”.
Another eight companies, including Southern Co and NorthWestern Corp, are “under observation” by the fund. There are now more than 650,000 jobs in the renewable energy sector, while the dirtiest source of energy, coal, is down to fewer than 75,000 jobs.
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“You talk about consumer confidence”, Chafee said with a chuckle.
