President Trump signed a turmoil of the executive commands on Tuesday aimed at expanding the mining and burning of carbon in the United States in an attempt to revive the racing industry.
A provision directs federal services to abolish regulations that “distinguish” carbon production, open new federal areas for carbon extraction and investigate whether carbon -burning power stations could serve new AI data centers. Mr Trump also said he would resign from some air restrictions adopted by Biden’s administration for dozens of carbon factories that are in danger of closing.
In a move that could face legal challenges, Mr Trump called on the Energy Department to develop a process for the use of emergency powers to avoid stopping non -profit carbon plants to avoid power outages. Mr Trump proposed a similar action in his first term, but eventually abandoned the idea after a widespread opposition.
With dozens of miners in white hard hats in the White House, Mr Trump also said that the Ministry of Justice has ordered to identify and fight the state and local policies that “put our miners out of business”. He added that he would issue “guarantees” that future administrations could not adopt policies harmful to carbon, but did not provide details.
“This is a very important day for me because we bring back an industry that was abandoned despite being the best, certainly the best in terms of power, the real power,” Mr Trump said.
In recent weeks, Mr Trump, Chris Wright, Energy Secretary and Doug Burgum, the interior minister, all talked about the importance of carbon. The two members of the cabinet sat in the first row at the White House ceremony, attended by members of Congress from Wyoming, Kentucky, Western Virginia and other coal -producing states.
“Beautiful pure carbon,” Mr Trump said at the concentration. “Never use the word ‘carbon’ unless you put ‘beautiful, clean’ before that.”
Carbon is the most polluting of all fossil fuels when it burns and represents about 40 % of carbon dioxide emissions in the world, the main engine of global warming. It releases other pollutants, including mercury and sulfur dioxide, associated with heart disease, respiratory problems and premature deaths. Carbon extraction and resulting carbon ash from power plants can also have environmental problems.
Over the last two decades, carbon has been reduced with vertically in the United States, as utilities have turned into cheaper and cleaner sources of electricity such as gas, wind and solar energy. This transition was the biggest reason for US broadcasting fall since 2005.
It is not clear how much Mr Trump could reverse this fall. In 2011, the nation created almost half of its electricity from carbon. Last year, this fell to just 15 %. Utilities have already closed hundreds of carbon units and have announced retirement dates for about half of the other plants.
In recent years, increasing interest in artificial intelligence and data centers has fueled the increase in electricity demand and utilities have decided to maintain more than 50 carbon combustion units to open beyond the scheduled closing dates, according to a Power of America. And as Trump’s administration moves to relax the limits of pollution in carbon power – including regulations applied to carbon dioxide and mercury – more plants could remain more openly or run more frequently.
“You know, we have to do AI, all this new technology coming on line,” Trump said on Tuesday. “We need more than double the energy, electricity we have today.”
However, a significant revival of carbon is unlikely, some analysts said.
“The main issue is that most of the carbon factories are larger and become more expensive to run and no one is thinking of building new plants,” said Seth Feaster, a data analyst focusing on carbon at the Institute of Energy Economics and Financial Research. “It is very difficult to change this orbit.”
During his first term, Mr Trump attempted to prevent the closure of non -profitable carbon plants, using the emergency principle that is usually intended for fleeting crises such as natural disasters. But this idea brought a strong overthrow from oil and gas companies, network operators and consumer groups, who said they would lead to electricity bills and the administration was eventually removed from the idea.
If the idea was tried again today, it would be likely to lead to lawsuits, said Ari Peskoe, director of the Law Electricity Initiative at Harvard Law School. “But there is not much story of the differences here,” he said. “Usually these emergency commands last no more than 90 days.”
Eventually, Mr Trump struggled to fulfill his promise for rescuing the carbon industry. Although its administration abolished numerous climate regulations and set a carbon lobby to drive the environmental protection service, 75 carbon -powered power plants were closed and industry dropped about 13,000 jobs during its presidency.
The decline of coal continued under President Joseph R. Biden Jr., who tried to move the country away from fossil fuels completely in an effort to combat climate change. Last year, his administration issued a sweeping EPA rule that would have forced all national carbon plants to either install expensive equipment to capture and bury carbon dioxide emissions or close by 2039.
This year, after returning to the office, Mr Trump ordered EPA to abolish this rule. And Trump’s administration officials have repeatedly warned that the interruption of carbon facilities will damage the supply. Unlike wind and solar energy, carbon plants can run at any time of the day, making them useful when electricity demands.
Some industry executives management of the nation’s electric networks have also warned that the country could face a higher risk of vacation, if too many carbon plants are withdrawn very quickly, especially since electricity companies have faced delays in the supply of new gases, and solar and solar plants.
“For decades, most people have taken electricity and coal for granted,” said Michelle Bloodworth, America’s chief executive. “This complacency has led to the damage to federal and state policies that have caused early retirement of carbon plants, thus weakening our electricity grid and threatening our national security.”
However, carbon opponents say that maintaining internet aging plants can aggravate fatal air pollution and increase energy costs. Earlier this year, PJM Interconnection, which oversees a large grid in the middle atlantic, ordered a carbon -burning electricity plant and another burning oil to remain open until 2029, four years after their scheduled retirement date. Movement could eventually cost utility customers in a area of ​​over $ 720 million.
“Coal factories are old and dirty, non -competitive and unreliable,” said Kit Kennedy, CEO for power at the Natural Resource Defense Council, an environmental team. “Trump’s administration is stuck in the past, trying to make utility customers pay more for yesterday’s energy.
