Last week, the Axios Generate newsletter pointed out a Wall Street Journal editorial and a National Mining Association blog post that both claim coal is making a comeback. But Amy Harder was quick to deflate those hopes with a link to a story about coal-based utility executives moving their businesses away from coal, and with a “thought bubble” saying earnings reports don’t sound near as optimistic as the industry’s talking points. More importantly, Axios reported back in April that a bump in coal was on the horizon due to increased Asian imports, so it has nothing to do with the the WSJ’s favorite strawman, Obama’s “War on Coal.”
Speaking of debunking right-wing talking points, it turns out it also wasn’t just Obama that was responsible for quashing offshore oil drilling and new pipelines. An appeals court ruled on Friday against a natural gas pipeline company, demonstrating that despite Trump’s push to streamline approvals, states still have a say in things (particularly under the Clean Water Act).
As further evidence that Trump can’t just will projects into existence, a recent auction of drilling rights only had bids on 90 of the 14,000 available offshore blocks. Clearly, there’s little appetite among companies to exploit the Gulf of Mexico. Pretty hard to blame Obama.
Though a proposed Arctic drilling site is being advanced (and is now open for public comment), Trump’s plan for more Atlantic drilling has hit a “wall of resistance,” according to E&E. Even in the deep red South, “129 East Coast municipalities — including every coastal mayor in South Carolina — have gone on record opposing the president's plan.” Given the low demand to drill in the relatively calm and warm waters of the Gulf and the uniform resistance to drilling by coastal communities (and at least 370,000 Americans), it looks like opening up of Arctic and Atlantic wasn’t met with the fanfare Trump hoped.
Also met without fanfare? The dissolution of a climate advisory group at the Department of the Interior. The charter for the Advisory Committee on Climate Change and Natural Resource Science was allowed to expire back in June, after an April meeting was canceled at the last minute (and after participants were told to book plane tickets!) Whether or not the committee forms again depends on the larger review of advisory committees.
But not to worry, surely the new group, Energy Builders, will provide all the high-quality science advice Trump’s government wants to hear: mainly how great pipelines are and how they’re definitely super safe. By the looks of it, this group of mostly white people wearing hard hats and neon vests is most certainly the “grassroots coalition of workers, local businesses, civic leaders, unions and American families” that it claims to be, and not yet another fossil fuel industry public relations campaign.
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