President Donald Trump signed an executive decree on Tuesday to extend the mining and the use of coal in the United States, the appellant “beautiful clean coal”.
During a ceremony at the White House, surrounded by coal miners dressed in heat, Trump signed the executive decree of American energy “which is revolted which follows the president’s recent promises to supervise an increase in coal production in the United States
The action orders in the interior department to facilitate coal leases for millions of acres of public land. Trump’s order also directs the energy department and other agencies to be sought if the coal can be used to provide electricity for artificial intelligence data centers.
Tuesday’s comments follow the plans announced last month for a radical decline in the long -standing regulations of the Environmental Protection Agency – that the Trump administration has described the “greatest deregulative action in the history of the United States”.
Several of the 31 actions announced by the agency in March targeted previous regulations intended to restrict emissions and pollution linked to the use of coal. The main one was the announcement of “reconsidering” “Clean Power Plan 2.0” by President Joe Biden, who was a group of regulations targeting the coal and natural gas power plants announced last year.
The Comanche generation station, a coal -fired power plant belonging to Xcel Energy.
Jim West / UCG / Universal Images Group via Getty Images
The “Clean Power Plan 2.0” has tightened emission standards for carbon electric power plants for toxic metals such as mercury and forced power plants to control and clean the coal ashes released during their operations. But during his campaign, Trump spoke favorably about the use of more coal to fuel America’s energy needs.
Coal is an abundant and dense resource with a higher concentration in the United States than any other country in the world, but it is also a fossil fuel and creates carbon dioxide (a greenhouse gas) when burned, which contributes to global warming and climate change amplified by humans. Coal emissions can also lead to health problemsIncluding respiratory diseases, pulmonary diseases, acid rain, SMOG and neurological and developmental damage.
While coal electricity has become “cleaner than ever”, according to the American energy departmentFossil fuel is always responsible for significant greenhouse gas emissions and coal ash polluting the environment. The “clean coal” is therefore a little unfit, sometimes referring to the types of technology used to physically clean the coal before being burned or to capture the carbon linked to its combustion, according to Michelle Salomon, analyst of senior policies at Energy innovation.
“Burning coal could never be technically considered to be clean, whatever the treatment applied to it before combustion – it will always emit the greatest concentration of greenhouse gases of any fossil fuel, and pollution of the soil and water from coal and coal ashes (which remains after its burn) will never disappear,” said Solomon. “Even the best technologies that reduce air pollutants such as sulfur and nitrogen oxides still allow many of them to pass.”
These technologies are also not widely used in the United States according to a December 2023 The Congressional Budget Office report, 15 carbon capture and storage facilities operate in the United States. And none of them is used in coal power plants. The CBO also found that the 15 installations can capture “0.4% of percent of total annual emissions from the United States of CO2”.
According to the US Energy Information Administration, the most important factor in recent reductions in carbon dioxide emissions linked to energy in the United States was the decrease in the use of coal. In 2022, coal electricity production was largely replaced by other sources, mainly natural gas and renewable energies. While the production of cleaner alternatives continues to grow, dependence on coal to meet the country’s energy needs continues to decrease.
ABC News’s climate unit contributed to this report.
