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This week, President Trump has continued to clarify his environmental priorities by pledging to open hundreds of coal power plants to the United States to advance competition with China.
“After years of detaining environmental extremists, madmen, militants and thugs, other countries, especially China, can gain greater economic advantages than us by opening hundreds of coal fire power plants.
The post was not linked to any particular policy plans or documents, but it arrives as the White House aims to stake a variety of environmental agencies and clean energy initiatives. Last week alone, the administration announced plans to roll back regulations governing coal production significantly and potentially fire up to 65% of Environmental Protection Agency scientists and researchers.
Coal, which accounts for around 16% of the country’s electricity generation, is down from about 50% in 2000 when natural gas and nuclear and renewable energy grew, according to the U.S. Energy Information Agency. Coal is relatively inexpensive, but is cheap to produce, but is considered the most dirty fossil fuel, with substantial environmental costs, including release of particle contamination and nearly twice the amount of carbon dioxide that warms the planet as natural gas.
For rethinking by the EPA, coal-related items have mercury and atmospheric toxic standards. This is a regulation that limits emissions from the nation’s largest plants that burn coal and oil, add water, generate steam and generate electricity.
According to the EPA website, the standard “achieved significant health and environmental benefits by reducing a wide range of dangerous air pollutants.” However, the agency now says the standards need to be reconsidered “improvely targeted coal-fired power plants.”
“The EPA must pursue common sense regulations to promote America’s great comeback. It will not go down the path of destruction and poverty in the last administration,” Lee Zeldin, the top administrator of the authorities, said in a statement last week. “At the EPA, we are committed to protecting human health and the environment. We are opposed to shutting down clean, affordable, reliable energy for American families.”
Zeldin said the standards introduced by the Biden administration would cost the EPA more than $790 million between 2028 and 2038. As his EPA challenges these standards, his agency said it is considering a two-year compliance waiver for power plants affected through a control process.
Last week, top US environmental agencies also published a review of regulations governing the disposal of coal ash, a by-product of coal burning at power plants. The EPA hopes to promote permit reviews and prioritize coal ash programs that will lead to more fully regulating coal ash at the hands of the state, Zeldin said. Similarly, we review rules that extend federal coal ash regulations to unregulated areas where coal ash is controlled, such as inactive power plants.
Zeldin said the pressing change in the agency will strengthen the US’s position as an energy leader and help save money for millions of Americans. “President Trump has fulfilled his promise to unleash control of energy and cut costs of living,” he said. “We at the EPA will do our part to promote America’s great comeback.”
These proposed changes, along with the president’s social media post, highlight a significant shift from the Biden administration’s clean energy initiative, including promoting green infrastructure and electric vehicles.
The United States was on track to close half of its coal-fired power generation capacity by 2026, according to a report by the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis.
But Home Secretary Doug Burgham told Bloomberg News last week that the administration is looking for ways to revive the shutdown coal plant and prevent others from closing. Burgum and other officials say maintaining plants online can reduce energy costs for US consumers, among other benefits.
Bulgham also told Bloomberg that the administration wants to cancel the Biden administration’s “attack on US energy.” AI data centers require a huge amount of energy that can arise from coal and other sources.
Trump’s social media post suggests that a new focus on coal is part of the power play with China, relying heavily on the manufacturing sector and the cheap coal power of the economy’s expansion. Approximately 60% of China’s power comes from coal, creating the world’s worst levels of air pollution and particulate matter.
That said, China continues to rely heavily on coal, but has also begun investing in solar and wind. The US appears to be heading in the opposite direction.
Last year, California Governor Gavin Newsom traveled to China to model global cooperation on climate change and California’s policies on clean energy and pollution reduction. Last week, the Trump administration suggested that key tenets in the scientific understanding of fossil fuels can rethink the fact that greenhouse gases, a major by-product of coal burning, are harmful to human health and the environment.
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