CHARLESTON, W.Va. — President Donald Trump is expected to sign an executive order Tuesday to rollback environmental regulations put into place by the Obama administration.
As a candidate, Trump made numerous promises to put coal miners back to work. The president continued pledging to improve the coal industry after taking office.
“As we speak, we are preparing new executive actions to save our coal industry and to save our wonderful coal miners from continuing to be put out of work,” Trump said during a March 20 rally in Louisville.
“The miners are coming back.”
The executive order is expected to include a request to the Environmental Protection Agency to repeal the Clean Power Plan. The 2015 policy would establish final carbon dioxide emission rates at power plants as part of an effort to cut emissions nationwide 32 percent by 2030.
States would have three ways of establishing limits, either through individual or joint efforts.
The policy has not been implemented as it is still under judicial review. Twenty-seven states including West Virginia are suing to have the law overturned.
The EPA said at the time increasing global temperatures are the reason for the plan. Carbon dioxide contributes most to the greenhouse effect; 81 percent of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions is carbon dioxide according to the agency.
As a candidate, Trump described global warming was “a very, very expensive form of tax” during a January 2016 appearance on “Fox & Friends.” In 2014, Trump said global warming itself was invented by China.
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Chris Hamilton, the senior vice president of the West Virginia Coal Association, said Trump is altering industry-harming orders made by former President Barack Obama.
“Nobody wants to degrade the environment,” Hamilton said. “But there’s such a thing as over protecting the environment where you effectively cap or decrease productivity.”
The West Virginia Coal Association endorse Trump’s presidential campaign in May 2016.
Hamilton said because of price increases and new leadership, there is a new sense of confidence in the coal industry.
But energy produced by coal has been declining in recent years; according to statistics from the U.S. Energy Information Administration, coal was used to produce less than 49 percent of the United States’ energy in 2007.
By 2016, however, only 30 percent of energy was produced at a coal facility.
For comparison, natural gas was used to produce around 22 percent of electricity in 2007. By 2016, that percentage increased to 34 percent.
In an interview Monday with The Guardian, Murray Energy CEO Robert Murray said jobs were lost because of changing technology and growing competition, adding it would be difficult for Trump to significantly increase coal jobs.
“He can’t bring them back,” Murray said.
Hamilton said coal is facing tough competition from natural gas and renewable energy, adding coal may never recover to previous levels.
“But it can rebound substantially,” he said. “There is no alternative to producing steel.”
“We think we can return back to being a health industry to contribute so much to our local and statewide economy here.”
In a statement, West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey said the executive order would fulfill Trump’s campaign promises of rolling back regulations.
“We can see the pathway to a better future,” Morrisey said. “One that unwinds this horrible and unlawful power grab, restores confidence in coal and tells those communities devastated by the past eight years they are forgotten no more.”
In the U.S. Congress, lawmakers reintroduced the Revitalizing the Economy of Coal Communities by Leveraging Local Activities and Investing More (RECLAIM) Act. The legislation would provide $1 billion from the Abandoned Mine Reclamation Fund to help coal economy-based communities. Around $200 million of the money would go to West Virginia over a five-year period.
Two versions of the bill were introduced in the Senate; one by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and Senator Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., and the second by Sens. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va.; Tim Kaine, D-Va.; Mark Warner, D-Va.; Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio; and Bob Casey, D-Pa.
“It is no secret that coal communities in West Virginia have suffered significant economic damage after eight years of harmful anti-coal policies,” Capito said in a release. “Strengthening these distressed regions, and creating an environment where job creation and business investment can thrive is one of my top priorities.”
In a statement, Manchin said the Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement estimates 4,600 jobs could be created nationwide with the funds.
“While this investment is not all that is needed, it’s a start,” he said.
In the House of Representatives, Reps. Evan Jenkins, R-W.Va.; Hal Rogers, R-Ky.; Matt Cartwright, D-Pa.; Morgan Griffith, R-Va.; and Glenn Thompson, R-Pa., introduced the bill.
“After eight years of the Obama administration’s war on coal, Appalachia needs help more than ever,” Jenkins said in a statement. “The RECLAIM Act will spur a new era of investment and revitalization in West Virginia and beyond.”
Trump has already met one promise regarding environmental regulations; he repealed the Stream Protection Rule on Feb. 16, which required additional waterway monitoring and reclamation work near mines. The rule was finalized under the Obama administration.