President Donald Trump has asked for the expansion of US coal production, claiming that an increase in “clean” coal produced in the United States will soon take place.
In a publication about Social truth On Monday night, Trump wrote, in part, “I am authorizing my administration to start immediately producing energy with beautiful and clean coal.”
The plans of the comments are announced last week for a broad setback of the long -standing regulations of the Environmental Protection Agency, which the Trump administration is calling the “largest deregulating action in the history of the United States.”
Several of the 31 actions announced by the agency last week went to previous regulations aimed at restricting emissions and contamination related to the use of coal. The main one was the announcement to “reconsider” the “Clean Energy Plan 2.0” by President Joe Biden, which was a group of regulations aimed at the electric coal and natural gas power plants announced last year.
The Comanche Generation Station, a coal energy plant owned by Xcel Energy.
Jim West/UCG/Universal Images Group through Getty Images
The “Clean Energy Plan 2.0” tightened emission standards for electric power plants for toxic metals such as mercury and forced plants to control and clean coal ashes released during their operations. But during his campaign, Trump spoke favorably about the use of more coal to boost the energy needs of the United States.
On Monday, Trump requested an immediate expansion of the production of coal on the network of truth, writing, “after years of being taught by environmental extremists, crazy, radicals and thug clean”.
Coal is an abundant and dense resource in energy 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 it burns, which contributes to global warming and climate change of human amplitude. Coal emissions can also lead to health problemsincluding respiratory diseases, lung disease, acid rain, smog and neurological and development damage.
While coal electricity has become “cleaner than ever”, according to the United States Department of EnergyThe fossil fuel remains responsible for the important greenhouse gas emissions and coal ashes that contain the environment. Therefore, “clean coal” is an inappropriate name, sometimes it refers to the types of technology used to physically clean coal before burning or capturing carbon related to its burning, according to Michelle Solomon, an analyst at senior policies Energy innovation.
“Burning coal could never be considered technically clean regardless of the treatment applied to it before combustion: it will always emit the highest concentration of greenhouse gases of any fossil fuel, and the contamination of the soil and the water of the coal and coal ashes (what remains after it burns) will never disappear,” said Solomon. “Even the best technologies that reduce air pollutants such as sulfur and nitrogen oxides still allow many of these to pass.”
These technologies are not widely used in the US. According to a December 2023 Congress Budget Office Report, 15 carbon capture and storage facilities are operating in the United States. And none of them are being used in coal combustion power plants. The CBO also discovered that the 15 facilities can capture “0.4% of the percentage of total CO2 annual emissions in the United States.”
According to the United States Energy Information Administration, the most significant factor in recent reductions in carbon dioxide emissions related to energy in the United States has been the decrease in coal use. In 2022, the generation of carbon electricity was largely replaced by other sources, mainly natural gas and renewable energies. As the production of cleaner alternatives continues to grow, coal dependence to meet the country’s energy needs continues to decrease.
The ABC News climate unit contributed to this report.
