Over the past few weeks, newly elected President Donald Trump caused an uproar with the signing of three executive memos on Monday 23 January 2017.
Focusing only the new developments in the coal industry, various independent researchers are questioning whether Trump really knows what he is doing and if he isn’t just making a huge calculation error.
According to Trump, he declares that the new developments will increase workers’ wage by $30 billion over the next seven years, as there have been found a net gain in jobs from Obama’s Clean Power Plan. The billion-dollar question remains, what will happen after seven years?
Researchers have found several contradictions in Trump’s plans for America. The biggest contradiction is his promise to recover the coal industry, well at the same time boosting its natural gas production. Energy experts commented on this by stating the significant influence in coal’s intense decline is, in fact, the cheap natural gas. Some analyses show that solar jobs exceeded oil and gas jobs starting in 2015.
The next contradiction in Trump’s First Energy Plan is support for clean coal. The technologies that would make coal cleaner by capturing the carbon dioxide that contributes to climate change are still very expensive. Installing the necessary equipment would make the prospect of burning coal even less attractive to utilities.
Another apparent contradiction in Trump’s energy plan is his support for clean coal. On the White House’s website, he stated in his First Energy Plan press release that America’s need for energy is closely connected with supervising the environment. The technologies that would clean the air by capturing the CO₂ from contributing to climate change, is to date still too expensive to execute. Even if Trump decides to install these technologies, the burning coal will make the surroundings less attractive to public services.
With these contradictions, no wonder Americans are protesting heavily outside the White House since Trump was announced as elected president. The US government implemented the Clean Air Act in 1970, and ever since six of the US’s major air pollutants were monitored. The results were as follows:
- Carbon monoxide down from 2000-2010 by 51%, while ground-level ozone dropped by 11% during the same period.
- Lead, one of the most dangerous industrial compounds dropped 89% from 1980-2010, while nitrogen dioxide dropped overall 52% during the same period.
Peoples’ demand for cleaner air haven been going on for decades. Will all the efforts be in vain with Trump’s environmental plans? Is this the beginning of the end of America’s fight for sustainability? How will the air quality statistics look at the period of Trump’s presidency?
God bless America.
