Tag Archives: President Trump

Trump Takes Credit For Utility Steadfastness On Closing Coal Plants

By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent

Here we are again, discussing the future of coal – this time as it relates to CO2 emissions and the fact that emissions have fallen in the United States. And as usual, President Trump finds himself in the middle trying to take credit.

So here is what’s really happening.

Despite having pulled out of the Paris Climate Accord, a report from the Environmental Protection Agency (as reported by Reuters) suggests that CO2 levels have fallen in the United States by 2.7% in 2017, even more than the 2% it fell in 2016.

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Interim EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler took the opportunity to crow about how the extra 0.7% was the result of the excellent Trump policies on the environment. As he said in a press release:

“Thanks to President Trump’s regulatory reform agenda, the economy is booming, energy production is surging, and we are reducing greenhouse gas emissions from major industrial sources.”

Which is a nice narrative, particularly if you’re hellbent on removing all environmental protections as EPA administrator. But here’s where the story falls apart just a little bit.

As we (and every other solar publication) had reported, U.S. utilities have not slowed down their plans to close coal plants, and they are only accelerating those plans as the years move forward. In part, that’s because they can replace these fossil fuel plants with clean, renewable energy like solar and wind.

As Reuters susses out, that’s the real reason for the additional reductions in greenhouse gases:

While Wheeler gave the administration credit for the reductions, which mainly came from the power sector, the numbers also underscore that the administration has not been able to stop the rapid pace of coal plant shutdowns … Natural gas releases far less carbon dioxide when burned than coal and a domestic abundance of gas has driven a wave of closures of coal plants. In 2017 utilities shut or converted from coal-to-gas nearly 9,000 megawatts (MW) of coal plants.

Now, it’s important to note that an unexpected drop in carbon emissions from the United States is still a good thing, and kudos to the utilities who have already recognized that the age of fossil fuels is rapidly fading.

But it does stick in the craw a little bit when the administration that’s taking credit for it is still running around talking about “beautiful, clean coal” and other pro-coal nonsensical blather. Let’s give credit where credit is due and not where it is not.

(It should also be noted that the Trump administration, for all its crowing, may finally be recognizing the futility of keeping uneconomic coal plants open.)

More:

U.S. greenhouse emissions fell in 2017 as coal plants shut

Could The Coal/Nuke Bailout Be Dead? Definitely, Maybe

By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent

It’s been an article of faith among President Donald Trump supporters that he was going to – come hell or high water – “save” the coal industry. As part of that plan, Secretary of Energy Rick Perry and his merry team have been working for months on a bailout plan that would use taxpayer money to support failing coal and nuclear plants.

The solar industry has been living with this sword of Damocles this entire time, just waiting for the inevitable announcement of a policy that seemed set in stone.

Well hold up – that stone may not quite be set yet, at least as far as Politico is concerned.

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According to insiders that spoke to the online news outlet on the condition of anonymity, the plan has run into opposition within the White House itself, specifically with members of the National Security Council and National Economic Council.

Word is that President Trump hasn’t officially weighed in against the proposal, but that he’s willing to go along with his advisors who oppose the plan, at least for now (as Politico notes, President Trump has been known to change his mind and that it is possible the plan could come back as part of his re-election strategy in 2020).

In a “too bad, so sad” moment, Politico reports that “the stalemate is frustrating the politically active coal mining companies that backed Trump’s presidential campaign and lobbied heavily for an economic lifeline for their industry.” (By economic lifeline, they mean a taxpayer-funded bailout.)

But as has been noted elsewhere, coal has been focusing its energies on fighting the wrong alternative. Solar and wind were never the monsters that were eating coal’s lunch; that was the natural gas industry. And once you riled up the oil-and-gas industries against you, your bailout was all but finished.

One has to feel a little sorry for West Virginia Congressional members, who took Trump at his word that he would do everything he could to “save” the coal industry. Politico discusses some of the hurt feelings that are now percolating after this most recent decisions to shelve the plan (at least temporarily):

“I’m trying to find the darn plan because I understand it’s gone from the Department of Energy over to the White House, and I don’t know who in the White House would be sitting on it for whatever reason,” Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) told reporters last week.

This story could change at a moment’s notice if Trump suddenly changes his mind or decides to break with his closest advisors. But for now, it seems like the plan to rescue uneconomical coal and nuke plants with a taxpayer funded bailout may not come to fruition.