Impakter
  • FINANCE
    • ESG News
    • Sustainable Finance
    • Business
  • TECH
    • Start-up
    • AI & Machine Learning
    • Green Tech
  • Environment
    • Biodiversity
    • Climate Change
    • Circular Economy
    • Energy
  • Industry News
    • Entertainment
    • Fashion & Lifestyle
    • Food and Agriculture
    • Health
    • Politics & Foreign Affairs
    • Philanthropy
    • Science
    • Sport
  • Editorial Series
    • SDGs Series
    • Shape Your Future
    • Sustainable Cities
      • Copenhagen
      • San Francisco
      • Seattle
      • Sydney
  • About us
    • Company
    • Team
    • Global Leaders
    • Partners
    • Write for Impakter
    • Contact Us
    • Privacy Policy
No Result
View All Result
  • FINANCE
    • ESG News
    • Sustainable Finance
    • Business
  • TECH
    • Start-up
    • AI & Machine Learning
    • Green Tech
  • Environment
    • Biodiversity
    • Climate Change
    • Circular Economy
    • Energy
  • Industry News
    • Entertainment
    • Fashion & Lifestyle
    • Food and Agriculture
    • Health
    • Politics & Foreign Affairs
    • Philanthropy
    • Science
    • Sport
  • Editorial Series
    • SDGs Series
    • Shape Your Future
    • Sustainable Cities
      • Copenhagen
      • San Francisco
      • Seattle
      • Sydney
  • About us
    • Company
    • Team
    • Global Leaders
    • Partners
    • Write for Impakter
    • Contact Us
    • Privacy Policy
No Result
View All Result
Impakter
No Result
View All Result
Home Society Politics & Foreign Affairs

Trump Watch: Beautiful, Clean Coal!

byClaude Forthomme - Senior Editor
May 20, 2018
in Politics & Foreign Affairs
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

Coal, historically, is the dirtiest source of energy ever used. Yet, once again, this week-end, Trump tweeted that it was beautiful and clean:

America is blessed with extraordinary energy abundance, including more than 250 years worth of beautiful clean coal. We have ended the war on coal, and will continue to work to promote American energy dominance!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 18, 2018

Why tweet about the beauty of coal? Probably to manifest support for the top environmental destruction man in his team, Scott Pruitt. As the head of EPA, Pruitt has been busy dismantling his agency  – with  a 23% cut in the EPA budget, systematic deregulation of the fossil fuels industries, and most recently, interfering with scientific work, blocking the publication of a public health study on nation-wide water contamination from chemicals.

Certainly Pruitt needs support from Trump to help him fight complaints against his ethics regarding his security detail, travel expenses, housing arrangements and other issues.

There is also something decidedly odd about Trump’s tweet: the claim that America has “250 years worth” of coal. It seems to echo a universal mantra about everyone having 250 years of coal left in the ground, for example, so does Germany. Ten years ago, Jeff Goodell, a contributing editor to the Rolling Stone, in a bestseller called “Big Coal: The Dirty Secret Behind America’s Energy Future”, debunked those numbers, pointing out that they were based on old studies made in the 1970’s and never properly updated.

The United States is not the Saudi Arabia of coal

Anyone looking at the US Energy Information Administration’s analysis of coal reserves can see that Goodell is right: It’s a simple arithmetic update, not a technical one. Moreover its page assessing the environmental impact of coal is woefully inadequate and leaves out any pertinent analysis of the cost of coal.  One wonders whether this is in response to a Trump Administration request to leave out the data.

In short, the death of coal is here, calling the U.S. the “Saudi Arabia of coal” is a myth, in fact one of five myths regarding “clean coal”. The other four myths are:

  1. we can capture carbon emissions from coal and bury them underground with CCS technology (we can’t: despite advances, there is still a reduction in air quality);
  2. emissions from coal plants are down 35% since the 1970s and the air is cleaner (not true, mercury pollution is on the rise and the American Lung Association in a 2011 report estimated that particle pollution from coal-fired power plants still killed 13,000 Americans every year);
  3. coal-fired power plants produce less mercury than the amount naturally buried in the soil (the problem: while “natural” buried mercury does not affect water sources and streams, coal-produced mercury does, adversely impacting the aquatic food chain);
  4. coal mining creates jobs (it does not, coal mining employment has plummeted since the 1950’s, accelerated by robotization, making a return to the 1950’s employment level is impossible).

Are an additional  1,700  coal jobs worth 13,000 deaths every year? Actually, even if it were 50,000 jobs, it would not be worth it. It’s a matter of, yes, ethics.

Trump has no moral qualms, he does  not believe in climate change or environmental pollution. All this business about coal causing lung disease in miners and polluting the air we breathe, not to mention the on-going  6th extinction announced by misguided scientists and journalists like Elizabeth Kolbert – all fake news!

American “energy dominance” is the only thing that matters. If MAGA requires turning the planet in a burning desert, so be it.

Trump’s vision of the world is stunningly reductive: it is a power play where bullies, and only bullies, win out.  In fact, MAGA is the lens through which Trump sees everything, from international trade, peace and development to international diplomacy.

When he reported on his recent meeting with UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, he couldn’t resist it. He tweeted Mr. Guterres is “working had to ‘Make the United Nations Great Again’”:

Just met with UN Secretary-General António Guterres who is working hard to “Make the United Nations Great Again.” When the UN does more to solve conflicts around the world, it means the U.S. has less to do and we save money. @NikkiHaley is doing a fantastic job! pic.twitter.com/pqUv6cyH2z

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 18, 2018

MUNGA? Sounds a little strange, but for Trump, that is ultimate praise. Mr. Guterres, you are MUNGA and you should be pleased even though you probably always thought that the UN was “great” to begin with – or you wouldn’t have bothered to work for the UN,  starting in 2005 to head the UN Refugee Agency, and now the UN.

No doubt, this warm meeting of MAGA and MUNGA was the work of Nikki Haley, the US Ambassador to the UN. She has Trump’s ear. For example, the new WFP Executive Director, David Beasley who was nominated by Trump is her long-time friend (they were both Republican governors of South Carolina). Indeed, the concept Trump mentions – that solving conflicts around the world saves money for the US that “has less to do” – is precisely what I have heard Beasley say to the WFP Executive Board.

One can support Haley and Beasley in their approach: This is the only kind of language Trump understands. Save money for the US, the rest of humanity doesn’t count.


 

Featured Image: Valley fill – Mountaintop removal coal mining in Martin County, Kentucky. 6 June 2006 Credit: image on www.mountainroadshow.com  Licensed under CC BY-SA

Tags: António GuterresClimate ChangeCoalDavid BeasleyderegulationEPANikki HaleyScott PruittTrumpUNWFP
Previous Post

The Role of Transitional Justice in Countries Emerging from Conflict

Next Post

Scoop, Carpooling Made Easier.

Claude Forthomme - Senior Editor

Claude Forthomme - Senior Editor

Claude Forthomme, ESG Director and columnist, is an economist (Columbia U. graduate) and aid expert focused on sustainability; former director (Assistant Director General-level) of Regional Office for Europe and Central Asia of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization; author of several fiction and non-fiction books in English and Italian

Related Posts

Power Outages in Spain and Portugal
Energy

Rethinking Energy Security in a Net-Zero World

July 14, 2025
un funding
Editors' Picks

Is the UN in Danger of Financial Collapse?

June 27, 2025
Right wing Voters Climate change
Business

Populist Right Voters Back Climate Action — but Not at Any Cost

June 24, 2025
Next Post
Scoop, Carpooling Made Easier.

Scoop, Carpooling Made Easier.

Please login to join discussion

Recent News

Catastrophe Bond Sales Hit Record $18.1B

Catastrophe Bond Sales Hit Record $18.1B

July 17, 2025
ESG news regarding UK abandoning green taxonomy for sustainability reporting, South Africa energy company Eskom switching to mainly clean energy, fish populations increasing in EU, and China’s increased focus on AI technologies

UK Drops Green Taxonomy Plan, Shifts Focus to Sustainability Reporting

July 16, 2025
refuse-derived fuel

This Fuel Is 50% Plastic — and It’s Slipping Through a Loophole in International Waste Law

July 16, 2025

Impakter informs you through the ESG news site and empowers your business CSRD compliance and ESG compliance with its Klimado SaaS ESG assessment tool marketplace that can be found on: www.klimado.com

Registered Office Address

Klimado GmbH
Niddastrasse 63,

60329, Frankfurt am Main, Germany


IMPAKTER is a Klimado GmbH website

Impakter is a publication that is identified by the following International Standard Serial Number (ISSN) is the following 2515-9569 (Printed) and 2515-9577 (online – Website).


Office Hours - Monday to Friday

9.30am - 5.00pm CEST


Email

stories [at] impakter.com

By Audience

  • TECH
    • Start-up
    • AI & MACHINE LEARNING
    • Green Tech
  • ENVIRONMENT
    • Biodiversity
    • Energy
    • Circular Economy
    • Climate Change
  • INDUSTRY NEWS
    • Entertainment
    • Fashion & Lifestyle
    • Food and Agriculture
    • Health
    • Politics & Foreign Affairs
    • Philanthropy
    • Science
    • Sport
    • Editorial Series

ESG/Finance Daily

  • ESG News
  • Sustainable Finance
  • Business

Klimado Platform

  • Klimado ESG Tool
  • Impakter News

About Us

  • Team
  • Global Leaders
  • Partners
  • Write for Impakter
  • Contact Us
  • Privacy Policy

© 2025 IMPAKTER. All rights reserved.

No Result
View All Result
  • FINANCE
    • ESG News
    • Sustainable Finance
    • Business
  • TECH
    • Start-up
    • AI & Machine Learning
    • Green Tech
  • Environment
    • Biodiversity
    • Climate Change
    • Circular Economy
    • Energy
  • Industry News
    • Entertainment
    • Fashion & Lifestyle
    • Food and Agriculture
    • Health
    • Politics & Foreign Affairs
    • Philanthropy
    • Science
    • Sport
  • Editorial Series
    • SDGs Series
    • Shape Your Future
    • Sustainable Cities
      • Copenhagen
      • San Francisco
      • Seattle
      • Sydney
  • About us
    • Company
    • Team
    • Global Leaders
    • Partners
    • Write for Impakter
    • Contact Us
    • Privacy Policy

© 2024 IMPAKTER. All rights reserved.