If the US government has its way, Americans will all get a big lump of coal in their Christmas stockings this year. According to the New York Times, the Interior Department this week said it would open 13.1 million acres of federal land for coal mining and reduce the royalty rates that companies pay to mine coal. The Energy Department said it would make $625 million available to upgrade existing coal plants in order to extend their lifespans.
Separately, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) said it would repeal dozens of regulations put in place by the Biden administration that are designed to curb carbon dioxide, mercury, and other pollutants from coal plants. It also will revise a regulation that limits wastewater pollution from power plants that the industry considers too costly. Heavens, we can’t worry about protecting citizens from deadly carcinogens when there is money to be made, can we?
Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said in a statement, “This is an industry that’s been under assault to try and restrict its capability. If we want to make sure we are continuing to lead and to win and make sure every American has access to affordable and reliable electricity, its important we get behind this.”
According to Bloomberg, “The moves mark the latest effort by the Trump administration to steer US energy policy to help ensure coal remains part of the US electricity mix, even as scientists warn the shift risks worsening climate change and is frequently at greater cost when compared to natural gas or solar power.”
Clean Coal For AI
What that piece left unsaid, or only hinted at, is the colossal increase in demand for electricity to run the massive data centers the tech industry says it needs to support the artificial intelligence revolution. Meta proudly proclaims it plans to build a data center larger than Manhattan so that Mark Zuckerberg can out-do his tech bro confreres at the AI game.
In a prior age, when Thomas Edison and George Westinghouse were battling over who would control electricity generation, governments made a policy decision that only one company would be allowed to supply electricity to a given area. The prospect of two or three generating stations across the street from each other battling for market share with separate distribution networks was too stupid to even contemplate. And so one company was awarded a monopoly that was overseen by a public regulatory commission.
Today we have a similar explosion of data centers with everyone trying to beat the other’s brains out, and the public is being stuck with the bill. Bloomberg reports that some residents of Baltimore has seen their utility bills rise by 80 percent in the past three years and attributes much of the increase to the spike in data centers in nearby Virginia. It says, “Electricity now costs as much as 267 percent more for a single month than it did five years ago in areas located near significant data center activity.”
At what point do we stop and ask why the companies that can afford to pay for their energy the most are allowed to pass the cost of supplying electricity to their giant data centers onto the backs of people who are struggling to make ends meet? Why are We The People paying for what amounts to little more than a “mine’s bigger than yours” contest between some of the wealthiest people in history?
Krugman On Coal
Paul Krugman today had some thoughts on coal and the administration’s insane quest to prioritize the dirtiest source of energy while kneecapping renewables that have the least environmental impact. In a Substack post entitled Fossil Fuels and Fossilized Minds, he writes:
“Coal stopped being a significant source of jobs decades ago. There are only around 40,000 coal miners left.[…] Vineyards and wineries employ around 130,000 people, three times as many as the coal industry. There was an epic decline in coal employment between 1950 and the 2000s, from half a million miners to around 80,000. But this employment decline didn’t reflect an economy turning away from coal. In fact, use of coal to generate electricity rose steadily over the whole period, peaking in 2008.”
So, why did all those coal mining jobs disappear? “Workers were displaced first by giant power shovels (strip mining), then by explosives used to blow the tops off mountains, exposing the coal beneath. By using these techniques, in 2008 coal companies were able to produce twice as much coal as they did in 1950, while employing 80 percent fewer workers.” Those who are gaga about the prospect of AI and humanoid robots might want to ask themselves if there might be some parallels between the loss of coal mining jobs and what is in the offing for workers today.
“The important thing to understand is that none of the ostensible justifications for promoting coal make sense. It’s not about saving jobs — coal mining as a way of life vanished decades ago.[…] because corporations replaced miners with machines and explosives. It’s not about reducing energy prices. Trying to keep coal alive will make energy more expensive, not less. What it’s really about is culture war. Trying to bring back coal is all about owning the libs, and if it damages the environment, well, from MAGA’s point of view, that’s a plus.”
Sicker Americans, Higher Profits
How sick is it that the government of the United States is endangering the health and livelihoods of its citizens to score political points? Still, it is unclear what effect the new policy initiatives will have on the coal industry. Bloomberg correspondent Ari Natter says: “Coal now accounts for about 15 percent of power generation in the US, down from more than half in 2000, according to the US Energy Information Administration. A total of 27 gigawatts of coal-power generating capacity, or about 16% of the US total, is scheduled to retire by the end of 2028, per the EIA.”
Not surprisingly, environmental groups are outraged. Holly Bender, the chief program officer for the Sierra Club, says: “The Trump administration’s reckless actions announced today will hurt the American people, all to prop up the aging and outdated coal industry. Coal power is now not only the dirtiest form of electricity, it is one of the most expensive, contributing to the rising cost of Americans’ energy bills.” We are dealing with a dope who thinks the way to make coal less polluting is to wash it before it gets shoveled into the fire box.
Congratulations, America. You have elected a blithering idiot to lead you and now you are reaping the reward in the form of skyrocketing utility bills. As one Baltimore resident told Bloomberg this week, “People shouldn’t have to decide between their gas and electric bill and food.” It is worrying how many Americans would disagree with that statement.