https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/february-12-2026
"In a ceremony at the White House yesterday, surrounded by coal industry
leaders, lawmakers, and miners, President Donald J. Trump was presented with a
trophy that calls him “the undisputed champion of beautiful, clean coal.” At
the event, Trump signed an executive order directing the Defense Department to
buy billions of dollars of power produced by coal and decried “the Radical
Left’s war on the industry.” Anna Betts of
The Guardian noted that Trump also
announced the Department of Energy will spend $175 million to “modernize,
retrofit, and extend” the life of coal-fired power plants in West Virginia,
Ohio, North Carolina, and Kentucky.
As Lisa Friedman pointed out in the
New York Times last month, the United
States has been the largest polluter since the start of the industrial era, but
emissions of carbon dioxide, a key greenhouse gas, have been declining since
2007. Trump maintains that climate change is a “hoax” and has withdrawn the
U.S. from the main global climate treaty. Since he took office in January 2025,
U.S. emissions have increased 1.9% largely because of the renewed use of coal,
the dirtiest of the fossil fuels.
Today, the Environmental Protection Agency revoked the scientific finding that
has been the basis for regulating emissions from cars and power plants since
2009. That finding, called the endangerment finding, reflects the consensus of
scientists that greenhouse gases produced by burning fossil fuels like coal,
oil, and natural gas endanger the health and general welfare of the American
people.
The Trump administration says scientists are wrong about the dangers of climate
change and that the regulations hurt industry and slow the economy. It claims
ending the rule will save Americans $1.3 trillion, primarily through cheaper
cars and trucks, but it did not factor in the costs of extreme weather caused
by climate change or the costs of pollution-related health issues.
Last year, Josh Dawsey and Maxine Joselow of the
Washington Post reported
that at a campaign event at Mar-a-Lago in April 2024, then-candidate Trump told
oil executives they should raise $1 billion for his campaign. In exchange,
Trump promised he would get rid of Biden-era regulations and make sure no more
such regulations went into effect, in addition to lowering taxes. Trump told
them $1 billion would be a “deal,” considering how much money they would make
if he were in the White House."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
