The hard hat is back. So is coal that is “beautiful and beautiful.”
President Trump signed four executive orders on Tuesday to sought to bolster the country's declining coal industry, including lifting mining restrictions and burning the dirtyest fossil fuels.
In addition to exempting air pollution restrictions and other coal regulations imposed by the Biden administration, Trump has directed the Justice Department to chase states like California, which aimed to tackle climate change by reducing the use of fossil fuels.
“I call it beautiful and clean coal. I tell people not to use the word 'beautiful, clean',” Trump said in the east room of the White House, surrounded by dozens of men wearing mainly stiff hats. “We are completely ending Joe Biden's war on beautiful, clean coal.”
Here are five takeaways from Trump's orders.
Miners as background
Trump has always loved coal miners as a masculine symbol.
At a White House ceremony on Tuesday, he repeatedly mentioned the Burley men who surrounded him, joking about whether the stage could handle their collective weight. He recalled that during the 2016 campaign against Hillary Clinton she was talking about Job Letrain for miners. “She was going to put them in the tech industry where you make little phones and things,” he said gestured at the hives and laughed.
Coal itself is a strong fossil fuel, he said. “A pound of pounds, coal is the single energy of the most reliable, durable, safe and powerful energy,” Trump said.
“It's almost impossible to destroy,” he said. “You can drop a bomb on it and it will be there for you to use the next day.”
What kind of climate change?
Coal releases more carbon dioxide when burned than any other fossil fuel, making it a major contributor to climate change. More mining and burning of coal adds to pollution that dangerously heats the planet, leading to more frequent and deadly heat waves, droughts, floods, sea level rise and faster melting of Greenland's ice sheets, Trump said he hopes to win the US.
Scientists say that to avoid the most devastating effects of climate change, major economies like the United States must cut their emissions sharply, rather than increasing them.
Coal burning also releases other contaminants, including mercury and sulfur dioxide, which are associated with heart disease, respiratory problems and early death. Mining activities and coal ash from generated power plants pose environmental hazards.
No coal results were mentioned on Tuesday.
He ignored natural gas, the biggest threat to coal.
Regulations limiting the amount of contamination from coal-fired power plants have led to these plants operating more expensively and reduced industry profitability. But, as Trump said, “radical green” policy wasn't the biggest reason for the decline in coal power over the past 20 years. It was cheap natural gas by fracking.
In the mid-2000s, American excavators completed a method to unlock the enormous reserves of low-cost natural gas from Shalelock. The utility quickly realized that coal could be replaced with cheaper gas.
According to a 2019 survey by the RAND Journal of Economics, the energy market and low natural gas prices account for almost all of the decline in coal plants' profitability between 2005 and 2015, and the resulting retirements of hundreds of coal-fired power plants. “Environmental regulations had little impact on these outcomes,” the study found.
Trump says he wants to “drill, babe, drill” and lower gas prices.
Law firm's shakedown pride
“Did you notice that many law firms are signing up for Trump?” the president asked the crowd at a coal event Tuesday.
He was referring to the multi-million-dollar pro bono legal services some major law firms offered to the Trump administration after the president threatened to target him with executive orders.
One company covered by the executive order – Paul, Weiss – has promised concessions, including $40 million in pro bono work for a Trump-friendly cause, cutting deals with the White House. Three other companies – Milbank. Skadden, Arps;Wilky Far & Gallagher – Actively agreed to his deal with the White House.
On Tuesday, Trump indicated that these free legal services would be directed. It fights climate policy and supports the coal industry.
“We'll use some of those companies to work with you on your leases and other things,” Trump told coal leaders.
Coal stock has risen, but will the revival last?
Tuesday was a good day for the coal industry. Shares of mining company Peabody Energy rose 9%. Alliance Resource Partners led by billionaire coal tycoon Joseph W. Craft III, who led Trump's fundraising during the presidential election, have risen nearly 5%.
But many experts are skeptical that Trump can do much to turn the coal outlook up. “Given the limitations on the use of emergency authorities and the symbolic nature of the order, we believe that Trump's coal executive order is unlikely to have a significant impact on electricity and carbon markets,” wrote an analyst at Capstone, a research firm. They called the coal stock bumps on Tuesday a “overreaction.”
The average US coal plant is more than 50 years old, and it is often cheaper for utilities to generate electricity using a mix of gas, wind, solar and batteries. Analysts say these fundamentals are difficult to change.
