{"id":25911,"date":"2025-04-14T09:02:03","date_gmt":"2025-04-14T09:02:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/?p=25911"},"modified":"2025-04-14T09:27:14","modified_gmt":"2025-04-14T09:27:14","slug":"trump-wants-to-reverse-coals-long-decline-it-wont-be-easy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/?p=25911","title":{"rendered":"Trump Wants to Reverse Coal\u2019s Long Decline. It Won\u2019t be Easy."},"content":{"rendered":"<div><\/div>\n<p id=\"article-summary\" class=\"css-79rysd e1wiw3jv0\">Coal has been displaced by cheap and plentiful natural gas and the rapid growth of wind and solar energy \u2014 forces that President Trump will struggle to do away with.<\/p>\n<section class=\"meteredContent css-1r7ky0e\">\n<div class=\"css-s99gbd StoryBodyCompanionColumn\" data-testid=\"companionColumn-0\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">President Trump last week issued executive orders designed to <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2025\/04\/08\/climate\/trump-order-coal-mining.html\" title>revive the use of coal in power plants<\/a>, a practice that has been steadily declining for more than a decade.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">But the effort is likely to fail, energy experts said, because the fossil fuel faces some critical hurdles. The power that coal plants produce typically can\u2019t compete with cheaper, cleaner alternatives. And many plants that burn coal are simply too old and would need extensive and expensive upgrades to continue running.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cIt will be very difficult to reverse this trend,\u201d said Dan Reicher, an assistant energy secretary in the Clinton administration and a former climate and energy director at Google. \u201cThere are a variety of forces at work that don\u2019t paint a very bright future for coal.\u201d<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"css-13o6u42 eoo0vm40\" id=\"link-3894064b\">Why has coal use declined?<\/h2>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Once the primary source of electricity in the United States, coal plants now produce just 17 percent of the nation\u2019s power. The main reason is that natural gas, another fossil fuel, became abundant and cheap because of the shale fracking boom that began in the early 2000s. Use of renewable energy sources, like wind and solar, has also grown a lot.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"Dropzone-1\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"css-s99gbd StoryBodyCompanionColumn\" data-testid=\"companionColumn-1\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Natural gas now provides about 38 percent of U.S. electricity, according to the Energy Information Administration. Renewable energy technologies such as solar, wind and hydroelectric power produce about 25 percent, and nuclear energy generates about 20 percent.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Some regions, like <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2024\/03\/28\/climate\/new-england-coal-plants.html\" title>New England<\/a>, are scheduled to shut down their last coal power plants soon. The most populous state in the country, California, uses virtually no coal for electricity generation.<\/p>\n<div class=\"css-kbghgg\">\n<div class=\"css-121kum4\">\n<div class=\"css-171quhb\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"css-asuuk5\">\n<div class=\"css-7axq9l\" data-testid=\"optimistic-truncator-noscript\">\n<div data-testid=\"optimistic-truncator-noscript-message\" class=\"css-6yo1no\">\n<p class=\"css-3kpklk\">We are having trouble retrieving the article content.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-3kpklk\">Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"css-1dv1kvn\" id=\"optimistic-truncator-a11y\">\n<hr \/>\n<p>Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/myaccount.nytimes.com\/auth\/login?response_type=cookie&amp;client_id=vi&amp;redirect_uri=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nytimes.com%2F2025%2F04%2F14%2Fbusiness%2Fenergy-environment%2Ftrump-coal-power-plants.html&amp;asset=opttrunc\">log into<\/a>\u00a0your Times account, or\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/subscription?campaignId=89WYR&amp;redirect_uri=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nytimes.com%2F2025%2F04%2F14%2Fbusiness%2Fenergy-environment%2Ftrump-coal-power-plants.html\">subscribe<\/a>\u00a0for all of The Times.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"css-1g71tqy\">\n<div data-testid=\"optimistic-truncator-message\" class=\"css-6yo1no\">\n<p class=\"css-3kpklk\">Thank you for your patience while we verify access.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-3kpklk\">Already a subscriber?\u00a0<a data-testid=\"log-in-link\" class=\"css-z5ryv4\" href=\"https:\/\/myaccount.nytimes.com\/auth\/login?response_type=cookie&amp;client_id=vi&amp;redirect_uri=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nytimes.com%2F2025%2F04%2F14%2Fbusiness%2Fenergy-environment%2Ftrump-coal-power-plants.html&amp;asset=opttrunc\">Log in<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-3kpklk\">Want all of The Times?\u00a0<a data-testid=\"subscribe-link\" class=\"css-z5ryv4\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/subscription?campaignId=89WYR&amp;redirect_uri=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nytimes.com%2F2025%2F04%2F14%2Fbusiness%2Fenergy-environment%2Ftrump-coal-power-plants.html\">Subscribe<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Coal has been displaced by cheap and plentiful natural gas and the rapid growth of wind and solar energy \u2014 forces that President Trump will struggle to do away with.President Trump last week issued executive orders designed to revive the use of coal in power plants, a practice that has been steadily declining for more than a decade.But the effort is likely to fail, energy experts said, because the fossil fuel faces some critical hurdles. The power that coal plants produce typically can\u2019t compete with cheaper, cleaner alternatives. And many plants that burn coal are simply too old and would need extensive and expensive upgrades to continue running.\u201cIt will be very difficult to reverse this trend,\u201d said Dan Reicher, an assistant energy secretary in the Clinton administration and a former climate and energy director at Google. \u201cThere are a variety of forces at work that don\u2019t paint a very bright future for coal.\u201dWhy has coal use declined?Once the primary source of electricity in the United States, coal plants now produce just 17 percent of the nation\u2019s power. The main reason is that natural gas, another fossil fuel, became abundant and cheap because of the shale fracking boom that began in the early 2000s. Use of renewable energy sources, like wind and solar, has also grown a lot.Natural gas now provides about 38 percent of U.S. electricity, according to the Energy Information Administration. Renewable energy technologies such as solar, wind and hydroelectric power produce about 25 percent, and nuclear energy generates about 20 percent.Some regions, like New England, are scheduled to shut down their last coal power plants soon. The most populous state in the country, California, uses virtually no coal for electricity generation.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and\u00a0log into\u00a0your Times account, or\u00a0subscribe\u00a0for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber?\u00a0Log in.Want all of The Times?\u00a0Subscribe.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":25913,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25911","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25911","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=25911"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25911\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25914,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25911\/revisions\/25914"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/25913"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=25911"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=25911"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=25911"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}