In a world where clean energy keeps winning, expanding exponentially, and creating good jobs, President Trump continues to keep his head in the sand -- or rather, in the coal dust. He recently, amidst his usual flurry of ridiculous assertions about witch hunts -- tweeted once again about “beautiful, clean coal.”
My short response: “lol, nope!”
Here’s a longer response about why coal is permanently losing ground to clean energy -- look at these recent developments from across the U.S.
First - States Are Enacting Plans to Go Coal-Free. Earlier this month, the New York Department of Environmental Conservation released the much anticipated draft rule that would fully phase out coal in New York by 2020 -- the “enforcement teeth” to Governor Cuomo’s 2016 State of the State pledge to make New York coal-free. According to our senior Beyond Coal representative in New York, Lisa Dix, the Empire State already has one of the toughest emissions standards in the nation on new power plants, and this rule would apply a carbon intensity standard to existing plants to protect public health and curb carbon emissions.
New York has statewide target to reduce carbon emissions sector-wide 40 percent by 2030 and 80 percent by 2050, and they’re certainly not the only state to have plans for being coal-free.
Second - Coal is too expensive and can no longer compete. In Henderson, Kentucky -- a city of 30,000 people with its own coal plant -- officials can’t sell the power because it now costs 33 times more than electricity on the open market. This is a nationwide trend!
Third - Clean energy is cheaper than coal and fracked gas. A recent report out from the Rocky Mountain Institute shows that:
Power producers are rushing to build natural gas plants and pipelines to replace retiring coal, but in less than 10 years much of that infrastructure will be more expensive to operate than the cost to build new renewables….That would leave investors and ratepayers saddled with billions in stranded assets.
It’s more than coal -- it’s fracked gas, too! Fossil fuels harm our health and our pocketbooks -- and that’s not all.
Fourth - Fossil fuel power plants cause significant health problems. A new study shows that within a year of shutting down fossil fuel plants like those that burn coal, the risk of premature birth by women living nearby decreased. The study, published in the American Journal of Epidemiology, found that after eight coal- and oil-fired power plants in California closed, the rate of premature birth for moms living nearby dropped dramatically. The greatest improvements were for Asian American and African American moms -- women who are suffering from a well-document maternal health crisis. Coal’s air and water pollution cause severe health issues -- why would we invest in dirty fossil fuels when we can choose clean energy?
Those are just four recent developments that make it clear the tide is turning away from coal and toward clean energy -- but I could go on and on. Coal is not coming back, no matter how much Trump, Environmental Protection Agency head Scott Pruitt, and their fossil fuel buddies try to make it happen. That's why we need federal support to diversify the economy in coal communities and to make sure no one is left behind as we make the transition to an economy powered by clean energy. In this country, we make decisions about how to produce electricity in our states and cities, not in Washington, D.C., and Americans are demanding safe, affordable, clean, renewable energy. No amount of tweeting is going to change that.