When it comes to coal power, President Trump seems to believe two major things that are both false: that coal power is clean and that he will save it. In his State of the Union address last week, Trump declared that he had “ended the war on American energy—and we have ended the war on beautiful, clean coal.” This statement is incorrect on many levels, and represents a misguided view of what the future of energy in the U.S. is currently and what it should be. Trump’s intention is to save coal mining jobs and give renewed strength to the industry, but that hope is not supported by actual market trends.
To begin, calling coal “clean” is perplexing on its own (and let’s not even go near the “beautiful” part). Coal mining and coal emissions are both extremely disruptive to the environment, and the burning of coal for energy releases carbon dioxide and other emissions into the atmosphere, contributing to pollution and human-caused climate change. The president did not make clear whether “clean coal” referred to the practice carbon capture and storage, a process by which carbon emissions from plants are captured and the stored underground (and for which this term has been used in the past). But even this process has received criticism from scientists and environmentalists who argue that this will not make a dent in the carbon dioxide already in the air and could take resources away from developing more sustainable technology.
To reference a “war on coal” is also to blame the wrong forces for the decline of this energy source. Trump implies that Obama-era regulations such as the Clean Power Plan have been choking the coal industry, and repealing this plan has been a priority. But no amount of deregulation is going to change the inevitable: market forces are leading to the shutdown of coal plants across the country, and other forms of energy are on the rise. According to Forbes, new coal is now more expensive than renewable energy, and in some areas, keeping coal plants open can be more expensive than building new wind turbines. Natural gas is largely displacing coal, and even better, the renewable energy sector continues to grow. Coal plants are shutting down independently of what is happening politically with deregulation.
If we want any sort of sustainable future, moving away from coal and toward renewable energy is going to be the way to go. Thankfully, this is already happening. Colorado is already a leader in wind power, a capacity that the state should keep utilizing. While renewable energy may seem difficult or expensive at the present, technological advancement in this industry is high-speed. Colorado can continue to lead the way on supporting renewable energy, an industry that should continue to expand worldwide.
While Trump clings to the idea that coal will make a comeback in a new era of loose regulation, the world is moving ahead in the realm of energy innovation and sustainable solutions. Instead of wasting time repealing Obama-era environmental measures in an attempt to support coal, this time and effort should go toward supporting energy sources that are on the rise and far superior in the long-term. Coal is on its way out no matter what the federal government does, and that is a good thing. The longer the Trump administration refuses to acknowledge this, the longer it will be playing catch-up later.
