Trump moves to 'immediately' open 'hundreds' of coal-fired power plants across the US to counter China

Donald Trump announced a massive reversal to decades of American environmental policy on Monday as he vowed to 'immediately' open coal-fired power plants.

The United States has been moving away from coal-dependency since the early 2000s when it was discovered that the coal-burning process emits carbon dioxide - which scientists say is primarily responsible for climate change.

In the decades since, many Americans have turned to renewable alternatives and cheap natural gas for power, as federal regulations raised the operational cost of coal production.

Now, coal accounts for just about 15 percent of all power generated in the United States - down from more than 50 percent in 2000, according to the US Energy Information Administration. 

But in a Truth Social post late Monday, Trump announced that America's trove of coal-burning power plants will once again be operational.

'After years of being held captive by Environmental Extremists, Lunatics, Radicals and Thugs, allowing other Countries, particularly China, to gain tremendous Economic advantage over us by opening up hundreds of all Coal Fire Power Plants, I am authorizing my Administration to immediately begin producing Energy with BEAUTIFUL, CLEAN COAL,' he wrote.

Trump's announcement came as 120 coal-fired power plants are scheduled to shut down over the next five years, in part due to environmental regulations that the America's Power trade group said made them uneconomic, Bloomberg reports.  

Keeping those power plants online could help lower energy coasts and supply energy to power-hungry data centers and artificial intelligence, administration officials have argued.

The president had even campaigned on the premise of bring back the coal industry when he first ran in 2016.

In fact, one of his first actions as president was to sign an order directing the Environmental Protection Agency to scrap an Obama-era regulation that sought to wean the nation's electrical grid off coal-fired power plants.

It now appears that the president is continuing with those efforts, with Interior Secretary Doug Bergum telling Bloomberg Television last week that the administration was considering using emergency powers to bring back coal-fired plants that have closed and stop others from shutting.

Energy Secretary Chris Wright also said earlier this month that the Trump administration was working on a 'market-based plan' to stem the closing of US coal fire power plants.

His comments suggest that Trump may move forward with a plan to force grid operators to buy electricity from struggling coal plants.

Meanwhile, Environmental Protection Administration head Lee Zeldin announced a series of measures last week to roll back significant environmental regulations in what he called the 'most consequential day of deregulation in American history.'

In total, Zeldin said he was rolling back 31 environmental regulations - including some that limited the pollution that can be emitted from coal-burning power plants.

The EPA chief also vowed to strike down the 'endangerment finding,' a 2009 scientific conclusion which found that gases leading to global warming pose a threat to public health and welfare. 

It is believed Trump is now ramping up his deregulation of coal-fired power plants in an effort to compete with China.

The country has relied on coal-fired power to surge manufacturing on an array of goods and drive its economic expansion.

Yet even as China's annual Gross Domestic Product, in US dollars, jumped from around $361 billion in 1990 to around $14.7 trillion in 2020, its coal consumption quadrupled and carbon dioxide emissions more than tripled, according to Bloomberg.

Still, at least one person celebrated Trump's decision - West Virginia Gov. Patrick Morrisey, who hailed it as 'outstanding news.'

'West Virginia is America’s energy state, and we stand ready to work with Donald Trump to lead our nation’s energy resurgence,' he posted on X.

'President Trump digs coal, and West Virginia digs President Trump!'