Trump Rolls Out More Of His Coal Program Today

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Originally published on The ECOreport

America’s Bureau of Land Management (BLM) oversees the development of approximately 570 million acres where there are coal deposits. Less than 1% of that is currently under development. [1. FEDERAL COAL PROGRAM, Programatic Environmental Impact Statement – Scoping Report, Bureau of Land Management, January 2017, p Es-1] That is about to change. President Donald Trump rolls out more of his coal program today.

Trump Rolls Out More Of His Coal Program Today

The BLM’s recently released scoping report on the FEDERAL COAL PROGRAM considers “the implications of Federal coal leasing for climate change, as an extensively documented threat to the health and welfare of the American people.” [2. Ibid, p Es-1] That report was written before President Trump issued an executive order for the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to review the Clean Power Plan.

The new EPA’s findings would appear to be a foregone conclusion.

Both Trump and his hand-picked Administrator of the EPA, Scott Pruitt, have made their views on climate change known.

As White House press secretary Sean Spicer explained at a recent press conference, “Regarding the question as to climate change, I think the President was fairly straightforward — we’re not spending money on that anymore; we consider that to be a waste of your money to go out and do that.”

Trump is also signing an executive order lifting a federal moratorium on coal leasing put in place by the Obama administration. 

Making America’s Coal Sector Great Again?

A century ago, coal produced 75% of the United States’ Energy. Thanks to the exploitation of petroleum, nuclear energy, and the hydraulic fracturing revolution, this percentage dropped to 16% by 2015. Now that renewable energy sources like wind and solar are cost competitive, coal usage is expected to diminish even further in the future. [3. Ibid, pps 5-9 & 5-10]

Donald Trump wants to make America’s coal sector great again.

“I am continuing to keep my promise to the American people to get rid of regulations that do nothing, absolutely nothing, but slow down the economy, hamstring companies, push jobs to other countries. Which is happening all over, although I must say we’ve stopped it.  You’ve seen all the factories and plants that are moving back to a lot of places,” he recently said

Center for Biological Diversity’s  Response

The Center for Biological Diversity has been quick to respond.

“An administration that doesn’t understand basic climate science has no business playing around with vital efforts to protect America from power-plant pollution. Cutting emissions from power plants is mandated by the Clean Air Act, and Trump can’t undo science and law with the stroke of a pen. We’ll fight in court to defend this critical effort to protect our planet from global warming,” responded Kierán Suckling, executive director of the Center for Biological Diversity.

Last summer, 67 US scientists sent the previous administration a joint letter stating, “The vast majority of known coal in the United States must stay in the ground if the federal coal program is to be consistent with national climate objectives and be protective of public health, welfare, and biodiversity.”

Image Credits: Screen shot from the cover FEDERAL COAL PROGRAM, Programatic Environmental Impact Statement – Scoping Report, Bureau of Land Management, January 2017; Donald John Trump, 45th President of the United States by DonkeyHotey via Flickr (CC BY SA, 2.0 License); Courtesy eia


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Roy L Hales

is the President of Cortes Community Radio , CKTZ 89.5 FM, where he has hosted a half hour program since 2014, and editor of the Cortes Currents (formerly the ECOreport), a website dedicated to exploring how our lifestyle choices and technologies affect the West Coast of British Columbia. He is a research junkie who has written over 2,000 articles since he was first published in 1982. Roy lives on Cortes Island, BC, Canada.

Roy L Hales has 441 posts and counting. See all posts by Roy L Hales