Trump delivers on coal
24 Don Surber by Don Surber
They said it couldn't be done, but Donald John Trump did it anyway.
That is the story of his life. He brought back Manhattan. He built the Central Park skating rink. He wrote a best-seller. He had a hit TV show. He married a model. He married a model. He married a model.
Since then he won the presidency and saved the coal industry. The only time in his campaign when he wore headgear that was not of his own making was when he donned a coal miner's helmet in Charleston, West Virginia.
The New York Times scoffed. In February, it ran an editorial, "Trump’s Deceptive Energy Policy."
The Times said, "Mr. Trump’s false narrative on coal is particularly cruel, since it offers empty promises to Appalachian coal miners who are suffering grievous job losses and myriad health and economic ills. It’s true that the last two Democratic presidents — Bill Clinton and Mr. Obama — cracked down on power plant emissions like soot and mercury with rules that imposed real costs on producers; and Mr. Obama’s Clean Power Plan, aimed at cutting the carbon emissions that fuel global warming, would have pressured the industry more.
"But these regulations did not kill coal-fired plants, and rolling them back, as Mr. Trump is doing, will not stop the unforgiving forces of the market, chiefly the switch to cheaper natural gas, and renewables’ increasing competitiveness. These are the forces that have been largely responsible for the decline in mining jobs and the closing, or conversion to natural gas, of hundreds of coal-fired plants."
Natural gas is a rival of coal, but Obama's anti-science nonsense about "carbon emissions" gave natural gas an unfair advantage. Carbon dioxide is a nutrient, which is the opposite of a pollutant.
Joe Biden said they would bankrupt coal companies. They did.
President Trump said he would bring back coal. He did.
Bloomberg News reported, "U.S. exports of coal used by power stations are set to hit a record this year on increased global demand for the nation’s high-energy-content fuel.
"Steam-coal shipments will probably jump 58 percent to 58 million metric tons this year, according to Guillaume Perret, founder of Perret Associates Ltd., a London-based research company. He expects exports to reach 65 million tons by 2025.
"President Donald Trump was elected partly on a platform of boosting the U.S. coal industry. U.S. production, including metallurgical coal used for steel production, advanced last year for the first time since 2013."
Obama said those jobs aren't coming back.
President Trump said, oh yes they are.
And they are coming back.
"The biggest buyer of U.S. coal in the first quarter was India, where thermal plants help generate about three-quarters of its electricity. An official from that Asian country earlier this year criticized Trump for seeking to pull out of the Paris climate deal while the U.S. has been a major contributor to emissions during its history," Bloomberg reported.
Interesting. |
