Trump’s plan to save coal: anti-environment, monopolistic, and probably unconstitutional
Trump is planning to curtail the energy market and potentially the U.S. Constitution in order to save coal, ignoring his own government’s dire warning on climate.
Donald Trump is a Republican; he is a businessman. Many of his policy moves have been aimed to help the private sector and capitalism, as he claims he has deregulated the Federal Government significantly. Ironically enough, he has a distinct hatred of the free market on trade and the energy sector. Tariffs however, are not going to hasten climate change. His plans to rig the energy market and keep coal on a lifeline will, which is precisely what Trump has done. His decision to save the coal industry disregards climate science, encourages monopoly, and walks a tightrope when it comes to constitutionality.
How exactly is Donald Trump shoving coal down America’s throat? It is still slightly unclear, as no official moves have been made, but potential moves have been announced in the last six months. The Administration’s plan in this instance is not about removing coal-restricting regulations, but rather use the power of the Federal Government to force energy consumers to use coal plants, coal plants which are currently at the brink of becoming obsolete.
Aloud, many will read that and wonder how the U.S. Government can pressure private companies to use coal to power their electrical grids. How can any government mandate an energy source? If it sounds dictatorial and authoritarian, it is. Trump can do this, in a legal way believe it or not, for “national security” reasons through two Federal laws: Section 202 of the Federal Power Act of 1920 and the Defense Production Act of 1950, both of which give the President the ability to use emergency war powers and the power to influence the economy for the interests of defense. Although these are very old Congressional statutes, they have been amended and re-authorized by Congress and adjusted by Trump’s Department of Energy Secretary Rick Perry through administrative law power, or the abilities of the executive branch to carry out laws. Since the U.S. is involved in wars in Iraq & Syria, he has the grounds to use these statutes, and any President will be able to do so as long as there is American intervention in a war.
The Government is planning on rigging the energy market through government force and electricity producers will have to use coal as a root source more than before, so these coal-fired plants remain, and business and the coal companies are saved. There are problems that get in the way, as so many coal plants have already closed because more efficient, cheaper, and cleaner energy solutions exist. This federal move will NOT save several coal plants while other plants are already sealed dormant until 2021. In fact, it was recently revealed that while Trump has been drawing up his coal-savior formula, coal use is currently at its lowest use in almost forty years (although any coal use now is misguided given the state of the climate). The impact may be small in size. But the invisible Executive Branch hand nudging electricity towards coal appears to impede on the free market guiding the economy, where the best companies and firms survive through demand and making profits, not through the government.
Trump personally and the Federal Government are probably not profiting from coal companies but saving them means earning support among those in the coal industry from top to bottom and he will probably get donations from the coal barons of West Virginia and Kentucky, who are wealthy decadent millionaires. They will pay him not in money but in campaign cash, a different currency, and will still make the Department of Energy and the Federal Government look strong to conservatives and Trump’s base, giving the current governmental composition a chance to remain in place past 2020. That has a value in of itself, despite not being monetary. Doing this is not inherently corrupt either, but policy-wise, it cannot be squared as an intelligent decision.
There are also constitutional questions at play, where the U.S. Solicitor General will have to prove that coal use is indeed necessary for the wars in Syria and Iraq or national security. That too will be hard to do since coal is dirtier, more expensive, and outflanked by so many other options. It is not that Trump is padding electrical supply with more coal; he is compelling companies to swap out other sources for coal.
Unfortunately for Trump, there is Supreme Court precedent for a President using executive power for methods they are not saying they are for, essentially deceit. The case of Youngstown v. Sawyer ruled that President Truman seizing steel mills citing “national emergency” (the Korean War) was not grounds to seize private property. More importantly, Truman’s use of emergency war powers when the seizing was actually done to stop steelworker strikes was seen as unconstitutional. Military power under Article II (regarding the executive branch) did not have jurisdiction to interfere in labor disputes.
On that same note, the Supreme Court could now rule that Article II, as well as the DPA and the FPA cannot be used to interfere in American energy markets or to save particular industries from going out of business. Without ownership, Trump is doing just that, so the precedent could apply. The trickery of the false guise of “emergency war powers” was a no-go in 1952; hard to say how it would be seen in 2019 or 2020. Since there is no true cause of using these laws for the war or national security, along with no valid scientific reason to use coal, it can be seen as an unconstitutional, thanks to Youngstown. There also may be other federal law and constitutional issues with the FPA and the DPA as a whole or in its specific provisions, which the Supreme Court could strike down if they decide to go that far.
Trump could luck out since there is a current 5–4 conservative majority on his side, and he has been able to appoint two justices himself. Ironically, the conservative or “judicially-restrained” move would be to uphold Youngstown and hand Trump a defeat. Time will tell if Trump’s plan moves forward or makes it to the courts. On its face however, it seems to be skirting the constitution.
This still leaves the elephant in the room unaddressed: what will increasing coal usage mean for the environment? The Trump Administration’s wide-ranging plan to bring coal back (this is just one piece), will undoubtedly make climate change worse in the United States and as a whole aggregately. Because of the environmental harm coal provides, the Obama Administration had a legitimate effort to limit coal use, and the same EPA is now making sure coal thrives. This will cost the economy trillions in losses and has the potential to lead to extreme weather that will destroy infrastructure everywhere. It will destroy remaining coral reefs. Animals species will go extinct. Food will run low and starvation will take place. Poverty will intensify. Lung and heart health are at risk. Healthcare will become more expensive, with far more cases of respiratory diseases. Which reminds me: remember the story of Obamacare death panels? The repeal of the Obama Administration’s landmark Clean Power Plan will actually lead to potentially four thousand deaths by 2030. In any case, humans will die. This is as much of a climate crisis as it is a health crisis, yet no one on the GOP side seems to really care on either count. Our air quality has no chance to be safe or better under President Trump and coal-puppet EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler. Ironic, considering Republicans used to care about these things.
Simply put, climate change is going to be an absolute disaster (even more of one than it already is), and the Trump Administration, rather gleefully, is going to make the climate far more damaging for animals and humans. Before Trump can initiate his full commercialization of coal, the UN already came out and acknowledged that there is a little over a decade left to fight back irreversible climate change, and the world as a whole must triple its current efforts. Meanwhile, Trump is not doubling down, but dumbing down on the environment, in the wrong direction. The Paris Agreement is simply a stepping stone in the right direction. Luckily, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (a UN program) has laid out step-by-step solutions and an explanation (good to pull up for the deniers and the ignorers) as to how global temperature rose by 1.5 degrees Celsius, instead of pushing coal as a valid energy source. This is not a joke; the U.S. Government has already released evidence in a report that was buried over the Thanksgiving weekend that climate change is already happening and affecting Americans in the ways described above (which Trump has already buried). It is going on as we speak, not set to some alarm clock in the near future.
For visuals, imagine that nearly all of the oldest ice on the planet have melted. In wake of terrible, prolonged forest fires in California last month, the smoke has dispersed throughout the United States, with smoke plume sightings in Philadelphia and New York City. No need to imagine this; as one can guess, this has already happened.
As for the private sector, the rest of the energy and gas industry needs to keep providing cleaner energy as they have for the last two decades. There are so many other options, as natural gas has already been in use nearly twice as much as coal. If renewables, nuclear, hydroelectric, and petroleum are combined, they collectively produce over a hundred million kilowatts more in electricity than coal in the present state. If those sources remain intact and grow, then coal, through the power of the free market, could be wiped out as we know it. That is what society needs, in order to prevent the end of the world as we know it. Ironically, the private sector could help in the fight against climate, as the oil lobby is already against Trump’s coal moves. Meanwhile, other energy sources must also remain in good environmental graces. In tough times like these, no one has room to slack off and pollute.
The President has no regard for the environment. He is playing with fire on constitutionality (nothing new for him at this point). He is hurting other businesses that do not produce coal by pushing coal, in an attempt to preserve a synthetic narrative of “bringing the jobs back”. Donald Trump is to America is what Santa Claus is to naughty children: he wants to give you a lump of coal! How about bringing clean air, good health, trees, forests, coral reefs, and animal population numbers back? How about letting capitalism do its thing and let the Darwinian way lead the country towards better energy solutions? How about doing something about climate change since it will be globally “catastrophic”? Everyone is far better off with that. Time to make Earth great again!
Special thank you to Wayne Batchis, University of Delaware.
Dec 11, 2018
