Coal and sanity rushing back through sound science

The Department of Energy is doing something smart for a change. They just announced that they want to restore coal plants across the nation “for up to $100 million in federal funding.” That sounds good to me – real energy, and maybe some will come from where I live – in Coalfield. The people here could use it.

In April, in an Executive order “reinvigorating America’s beautiful clean coal industry” it was announced:

• President Trump believes that coal Requires agencies to rescind any agency policies that seek to transition the Nation away from coal production or otherwise establish preferences against coal as a generation resource.
• Directs CEQ (Council on Environmental Quality)to assist agencies in adopting coal-related categorical exclusions under NEPA National Environmental Policy Act).
• Seeks to promote coal and coal technology exports, facilitate international offtake agreements for U.S. coal, and accelerate development of coal technologies.
• Calls for the Secretary of Energy to determine whether coal used in the production of steel meets the definition of a “critical material” and “critical mineral” under the Energy Act of 2020, and if so, add it to the relevant lists.
• Pushes for using coal to power new artificial intelligence (AI) data.

Coalfield was once the largest town in the county. When coal was killed, it shrunk so badly that it is now too small to even have a Post Office. Our mail is addressed to the next county over. We have two gas stations a Dollar Store, and a lot of empty buildings that were once active businesses. Hopefully, soon they will be again.

President Trump believes that coal is essential to our national and economic security.

• The coal industry supports hundreds of thousands of jobs and adds tens of billions to the U.S. economy each year.
• America’s coal resources are vast, with a current estimated value in the trillions of dollars.
• Coal-fired electricity generation is cleaner than ever, yet the previous administration waged war on coal.
• Coal will be critical to meeting the rise in electricity demand due to a resurgence of domestic manufacturing and the construction of AI data processing centers.
• Supporting our coal industry will increase our energy supply, lower electricity costs, stabilize our grid, create high-paying jobs, support burgeoning industries, and assist our allies.

Thankfully, President Trump realized that to achieve his goal of bringing back cheap energy, he first needed to deal with Agenda21/2030, the roadblocks to the sound science of clean energy. He needed to rid us of these phony programs designed to deny sound science and shut down free markets. In other words ignore common sense and follow Marxism into the ovens of hell.

• President Trump: “We will develop the liquid gold that is right under our feet, including American oil and natural gas and we will also embrace nuclear, clean coal, hydropower, which is fantastic, and every other form of affordable energy to get it done.”
• This Executive Order builds on actions President Trump has already taken to bring Americans the lowest-cost energy and electricity on earth. This includes:
  • Withdrawing from the Paris Climate Agreement.
  • Revoking Biden executive actions that hampered American energy production.

Thankfully, the President realized that to achieve his goals he by:

• Terminating the Green New Deal.
• Unleashing Alaska’s extraordinary resource potential.
• Declaring a national energy emergency.
• Reversing the pause on liquefied natural gas (LNG) export permits.
• Cutting red tape to speed up the Federal permitting process.

In his “Energy Literacy Newsletter”, Ronald Stein, Energy consultant for the Heartland Institute notes:

Today oil, coal, and natural gas are the basis of over 80% of all global demand for the products and transportation fuels that did not exist before the 1800’s.

• Today, policymakers setting “green” and “zero emissions” policies are oblivious to the reality that electricity came about AFTER the discovery of oil. Without oil, there would be no products like wire, insulation, and computers to generate electricity!
• So-called “renewables, ONLY generate electricity but CANNOT make anything. In addition, everything that NEEDS Electricity is made with petrochemicals manufactured from crude oil, coal, or natural gas.

Stein continues:

The high price of electricity from wind and solar deployed at society-scale illustrates an important cost of supply principle. Because everyone needs affordable and reliable energy—whether the products made from oil, electricity, gasoline, diesel, aviation, or heating fuel—the higher the overall costs, the more damaging it is proportionally for those who can least afford it.

With this, it looks like we are finally back to sound science, reason, and logic – things that our government had locked in the closet but forgot to throw away the key. Thank you, President Trump for digging until you found – and made good use – of it. My town may never get back to what it once was, but, if coal comes back to Coalfield, the people can begin to grow a real town again. And that goes for so many good places across the nation.

Let’s see the sheep become lions!