Opponents of an executive order of Trump aimed at promoting coal production in the United States are aligning to challenge -saying that the action of the President diminishes the authority of the states to establish their own policies and that the nation again in reduction in greenhouse gas emissions, which has decreased by more than 16% over the levels of 2005, according to the latest inventory in 2024.
The Order of Trump, published on April 8, instructs the heads of the United States Environmental Protection Agency, the Treasury of the United States and the Department of Transportation, Interior, Energy and Work to identify the regulations, orientation, programs and policies that “ seek to transition the nation away from coal production and electricity generation ” in 30 days, and to terminate or review these policies within 60 days.
“Beautiful net coal resources of our nation will be essential to meet the increase in demand for electricity due to the resurgence of domestic manufacturing and the construction of artificial intelligence data processing centers,” Trump wrote.
The order follows Trump’s tweets in March by promoting coal in its energy domain agenda and moves through China last year to increase coal energy production, despite large investments in clean energy in recent years.
Several groups in the fossil aligned energy sector or industry -focused, including the American Petroleum Institute, rushed to praise the order.
However, a spokesman for the Electric Institute of Edison was more neutral, saying that members of the UEEI useful use a mixture of diverse energy to meet increasing demand and that they will “ continue to relate to the administration and other interested parties … to ensure that sufficient generation is available to meet the needs of customers and that we can build the new generation necessary to satisfy. ”
But critics argue that the revision of coal production, partially through the restriction of the efforts of states to reduce the emissions caused by coal, is unconstitutional and ignores the market forces that have led most public services to pursue the aging coal facilities for their own will.
“Coal is more expensive than cleaner and safer renewable energy,” said Ted Kelly, director and principal counselor of the United States net energy at the Environmental Defense Fund, in a statement. “The use of coal has decreased due to the high cost of coal operational plants and no executive order will change this reality of the market.”
In a joint statement, New York Governor, Kathy Hochul (D) and again Mexico governor, Michelle Lujan Grisham (D), said: “The federal government cannot unilaterally deploy the independent constitutional authority of the states. Work, grow the clean energy economy and make our future healthier and safer.”
Evan Westrup, a spokesman for the United States Climate Alliance, a bipartisan coalition of 24 United States governors and territories that are committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions, says that all members of the group have renewable and clean energy standards for electricity and climate action plans. The members of the alliance have been “active in the attacks challenging their work and resources in recent months,” he says, adding that many of these efforts have been successful.
In Pennsylvania, a state legal challenge involved the launch of more than $ 2 billion in federal funds that had been frozen under soing. On March 19, four states–Directed by Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellis–He filed a lawsuit claiming that since February, EPA has “followed a highly irregular and illegal campaign to frustrate the appropriation of $ 20 billion made by Congress” for clean energy and greenhouse gas reduction projects based exclusively on the president’s disgust in the Act of Inflation Reduction. This “violates the fundamental constitutional guarantees of freedom in the separation of powers and gives off the numerous legal and regulatory controls on the management of the appropriations of Congress and the completed awards of the federal agencies,” they say in the complaint.
