President Trump, the “undisputed champion of beautiful, clean coal,” wants the Defense Department to start buying more of it
US total coal consumption, however, has plummeted in the last two decades.
During the inaugural Champion of Coal event held at the White House last week, President Trump — having just been presented with the “Undisputed Champion of Beautiful, Clean Coal” award by the chair of the National Coal Council and CEO of Peabody Energy, Jim Grech — signed an executive order directing the Department of War to approve and prioritize power contracts with the coal industry moving forward.
The move to get the US government’s largest energy consumer to start buying more coal is the latest in a line of public declarations and policies from the president to show his support for the natural resource as he attempts to revive the industry around it.
Ashes to ashes
The latest announcement hasn’t been without its critics, however, with some people arguing against the directive on environmental and fiscal grounds. Energy experts told The New York Times that even if the Defense Department shifted its entire energy demand to be powered by coal exclusively, that would still only amount to about 3% of the nation’s current total capacity. Indeed, it would take quite a lot to turn around America’s coal consumption, which has largely been eschewed in the US energy mix in favor of natural gas and renewables like wind and solar.
Though coal has helped prop up some of the increasing energy demand from America’s ever-expanding data center landscape — consumption even rose slightly last year to break a 15-year declining streak — the resource has fallen by the wayside more broadly as the nation’s clean energy boom continues. Per the latest monthly figures from the US Energy Information Administration, national coal consumption sat at just above 34 million short tons in October — about 60% of the level it was at 10 years ago and just over a third of what it was during the 2007 summer peak.
The US is hardly the only nation where coal has fallen out of favor, though, with global consumption expected to have peaked last year and forecast to drop by 3% around the world by 2030. Clearly, when America gets too much soot up its nose, much of the rest of the world sneezes.
