Rubin noted that Trump approved legislation that did away with an Obama administration regulation protecting waterways from coal mining waste. "However, it's very unlikely that coal will make a major comeback anytime soon."įor these reasons, Kharecha gave Trump an "F" on coal.Įdward Rubin, a professor of engineering, public policy and mechanical engineering at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, also failed Trump in coal science. "Either knowingly or unwittingly, Trump has been selling false promises to 'coal country,' saying he'll bring their jobs back," Kharecha said. Natural gas is less expensive than coal, and is expected to surpass it in the long run. Since the early 2000s, natural gas has produced a growing percentage of the country's energy generation, and in 2016 natural gas produced more energy than coal did, according to the U.S. Even so, this coal-energy boost may be short-lived, experts said. On March 28, Trump signed an executive order to dismantle the Clean Power Plan, which would have pushed the national away from burning coal and toward cleaner energy sources such as natural gas and even renewables like wind and solar. The plant, located in Texas, opened in January 2017, so it's too soon to say whether it will be a successful clean power plant, Kharecha said. Moreover, while Trump talked about clean coal during the second presidential debate, the United States has only one coal power plant equipped with carbon capture and storage, a mechanism that captures coal pollutants before they enter the atmosphere, he said. "We can safely say that most of these deaths are due to coal burning, since it produces most of the fatal pollutants in this sector," Kharecha said. "To knowingly promote such an energy source is a big step backward."Įlectricity generation is associated with the premature deaths of more than 50,000 people every year in the United States, according to a 2013 study published in the journal Atmospheric Environment. "Basic science tells us that coal is by far the dirtiest fuel in terms of both greenhouse gas emissions and fatal air pollutants," Pushker Kharecha, a climate scientist at the Earth Institute at Columbia University in New York City, told Live Science. Trump has promoted coal energy and coal mining jobs above other cleaner energy sources, leading scientists interviewed by Live Science to give him failing grades in this sector. Department of the Interior known as the Stream Protection Rule in the Roosevelt Room of the White House on Feb. 38, disapproving the rule submitted by the U.S. Reporting by Laura Geggel, Senior Writer CoalĪ coal miner shakes hands with President Donald Trump prior to the President signing H.J. "He’d have to ace the final (demonstrating a real recognition of the scientific evidence and its implications) to avoid an 'F.'" " that’s only because the term isn’t over," Mann told Live Science in an email. Trump earned a "D" from Michael Mann, a distinguished professor of meteorology at Pennsylvania State University. The president’s policies are opposite to what the science compels." leadership is critical to the global effort. "The science clearly shows that sustained actions are needed now to significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions," Rubin said. Trump also scored an "F" from Edward Rubin, a professor of engineering, public policy and mechanical engineering at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh. "To put this into context, all of this is happening at a time when essentially the entire rest of the world recognizes that not only is human-caused climate change very real, it's reaching crisis-level urgency," Kharecha said.īecause Trump and his administration haven't properly acknowledged the reality that climate change is primarily caused by humans, "much less said or done anything to address it, I give him a big "F" on this issue," Kharecha said. Trump also signed an executive order that would roll back the Clean Power Plan, a regulation designed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, which contribute to climate change. "And the proposed White House budget, if accepted by Congress, would disproportionately slash funding for key federal Earth science research programs," Kharecha said. "Since becoming president, I don't think he's ever addressed the issue directly - but the nature of his appointees says a lot," said Pushker Kharecha, a climate scientist at the Earth Institute at Columbia University in New York.įor instance, Trump appointed Scott Pruitt to the Environmental Protection Agency and Rick Perry to the Department of Energy, "two well-known climate change deniers minimizers," Kharecha told Live Science. These days, Trump's actions toward addressing climate change aren't promising.
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