The administration of the US president, Donald Trump, announced on Monday that he wanted to open millions of federal hectares to coal extract, the most polluting fossil fuels, a measure that endangers global efforts to slow down climate change.
This announcement is accompanied by other measures aimed at reviving this expensive industry in decline, including a reduction in environmental regulations to the activity of very polluting electric power plants.
Qualifying the “clean” coal, the head of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Lee Zeldin, praised the measures to “strengthen the industrial competitiveness” of the country and “reduce the costs” of energy “for US families.”
Great taxpayer to global warming
Coal, from which more than a third of global electricity occurs, is an important taxpayer to global warming due to CO2 emissions due to its combustion.
“This administration takes the federal money and distributes it to the owners of the oldest, most expensive and polluting electricity sources. What a waste!” Denounced in reaction Amanda Levin, of the American environmental NGO NRDC.
In April, President Donald Trump had signed decrees to “boost” coal production, to respond in particular to the emergence of artificial intelligence.
A wish against past policies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, but also to the evolution of the energy sector.
Coal production has decreased in the United States for fifteen years, coal that has been gradually replaced by natural gas and renewable, cheaper and clean energy.
In 2023, coal represented only just over 16% of the total electricity production of the United States, compared to around 50% in 2000.
Since his return to power, Donald Trump has changed an inverse climate, denouncing the 2015 Paris Agreement that aims to limit heating at +1.5 ° C ideally and supporting fossil energies with deregulation.
Last week, the Republican rejected the UN the scientific conclusions on the subject and accused the “climate change” of being “the best scam” in history.
Source: BFM TV
