Has Trump abandoned “clean, beautiful coal”?
In his SOTU address, the president talked extensively about energy but never uttered the word “coal*”
The president’s omission was not missed by the media:
The Energy 202: Trump didn't mention coal once during his State of the Union
Trump ditches coal when hyping 'revolution in American energy' in SOTU speech
Coal Under The Bus, State Of The Union Edition
Does this signal a shift away from coal or was it just an oversight? Despite Trump’s previous coal rhetoric and the rollback in environmental protections at the EPA, American coal usage continues to decline. Earlier this week, West Virginia Public Broadcasting cited a coal analyst about coal’s future:
Houser said there is also little indication any utility in the country is planning on building a new coal-fired power plant, even under the current, more relaxed regulatory environment.
Similarly, Reuters reported last month:
More U.S. coal-fired power plants were shut in President Donald Trump’s first two years than were retired in the whole of Barack Obama’s first term, despite the Republican’s efforts to prop up the industry to keep a campaign promise to coal-mining states.
*The absence of “coal” certainly did not mean that the president had become environmentally aware. As Red Green and Blue pointed out, Trump also failed to mention “solar,” “wind,” or “planet” and one of his two references to “earth” was in “Our military is the most powerful on earth.”
