In a maiden
trip to the Environmental Protection Agency, he ordered a review of emission
limits for coal-fired power plants and eased up restrictions on federal leasing
for coal production. Trump said the measures herald “a new era in American
energy and production and job creation.”
Critics say that rolling back Obama’s
Clean Power Plan is unlikely to result in a boost to production or to create
substantial numbers of jobs. America’s coal industry has long been in decline,
with natural gas, cheap renewable energy, automation and tricky geology making
the sooty fuel a less lucrative prospect.
In 2008 there were 88,000 coal miners
in the United States, according to the US Energy Information Administration.
Today, the number of coal miners has fallen around 25 percent.
More people work
in Whole Foods, an upscale supermarket chain. But some experts and
environmental groups warned Trump’s order could be the opening salvo of an
effort to undermine internationally agreed targets under the Paris Climate
Accord. Curbing emissions from coal-fired power plants was a pillar of
America’s commitment to cut carbon emissions by 26-28 percent by 2025.
“It will
make it virtually impossible” for the US to meet its target said Bob Ward, a climate
specialist at the London School of Economics. The Trump administration has not
said whether it will pull out of the Paris deal.
“Whether we stay in or not is
still under discussion,” a senior administration official told AFP. Veterans of
the Obama administration played down the impact of Trump’s actions. Obama’s
former chief environmental advisor described the executive order as “terrible”
but said “it isn’t the ball game.”
He added that any damage can be mitigated in
the courts and in states, which are tasked with coming up with emissions
reduction plans. Already the states of California and New York —
two of the
most populous states —
have said they will press ahead with climate mitigation
plans. – Politics at play – During the 2016 election campaign Trump donned a
hard hat and embraced miners from Kentucky to West Virginia, promising to
return jobs to long-ravaged communities. He won both states by a landslide.
Miners were by his side again on Tuesday. “Our incredible coal miners, we love
our coal miners, great people,” he said. Trump’s words may have been less well
received in the corridors of the EPA’s imposing Washington headquarters. His
repeated questioning of humans’ role in warming the planet had prompted
environmentalist critics to charge the fox is guarding the hen house. Trump has
done little to assuage those fears, vowing to slash EPA funding by a third,
appointing anti-climate litigator Scott Pruitt as head of the EPA and Exxon’s
CEO Rex Tillerson as Secretary of State. But Trump’s climate skepticism has
struck a chord with many Republican voters. Some 68 percent of Americans
believe climate change is caused by humans, but just 40 percent of Republicans
say they worry about it, according to Gallup. – ‘War on coal’ – Some experts
warn the economic payoff from abandoning Obama’s Clean Power Plan will be
limited. “In my view, it will have virtually no impact,” said professor James
Van Nostrand of West Virginia University, who said the decline of coal had more
to do with higher mining costs and cheaper natural gas and renewables.
“Defunding or dismantling the EPA and repealing its regulations is not going to
bring the coal industry back.” “The constant narrative about the ‘war on coal’
and the alleged devastating impact of EPA’s regulations on West Virginia’s coal
industry will now be exposed for its inherent speciousness,” he predicted.
Referring to the plan, the senior administration official told AFP: “It’s going
to take some time.” The United States is the world’s second largest polluter.
Around 37 percent of domestic carbon dioxide emissions come from electricity
generation.
AFP
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