President Donald Trump’s coal-boosting endeavors kicked off last month with a slate of executive orders that would let the U.S. Energy Department order power plants to stay open and would exempt some coal plants from air-pollution regulations. Among those facilities targeted for reinstatement is the Cholla coal plant in Arizona, which shut down in March, and which a state energy regulator warned would cost utility customers nearly $2 billion to reopen.
In recent weeks, the DOE has ordered a Michigan coal power plant and a Pennsylvania oil and gas facility to stay open just days before their planned retirements. The Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis examined the challenges of keeping the Michigan plant open, noting that its power prices were becoming increasingly uncompetitive and that its owner has already been working for years to replace its generation capacity with renewables and gas. And with coal companies laying off miners across Appalachia, keeping coal alive is only going to become more impractical.
Bad news/good news for greener steel
A potential deal between Nippon Steel and U.S. Steel, backed by President Trump, would likely be bad news for efforts to clean up steelmaking. A week ago, Trump announced that Japan’s Nippon Steel was set to acquire U.S. Steel in a deal whose details are yet to be disclosed. Nippon has previously pledged to extend the life of U.S. Steel’s coal-burning furnaces, Alexander C. Kaufman reported for Canary Media this week, and to build a new electric arc furnace in the U.S. should the deal go through.
Meanwhile, Massachusetts-based Boston Metal is honing a greener steelmaking process of its own. The start-up is developing a technique that uses electricity to remove contaminants from iron ore, the company told Canary Media’s Sarah Shemkus. Refining iron ore is responsible for most of steelmaking’s emissions, but in Boston Metal’s process, the only greenhouse gas emissions created come from the electricity used to power it.
Clean energy news to know this week
Breakup of the year: President Trump and Elon Musk start a public fight over the congressional budget bill, leading Tesla shares to drop Friday morning and leaving the EV company with few political allies. (E&E News, Associated Press)
Fading love for renewables: A Pew Research Center survey finds support for solar and wind power has dropped among both Democrats and Republicans over the past five years. (Floodlight)
Can start-ups survive? Cleantech start-ups are“stress testing” operations to see if they can still move forward after the Trump administration cuts funding for industrial decarbonization and other clean energy projects. (Wall Street Journal)
Routing climate research: The White House’s campaign to slash National Science Foundation grants has eliminated funding for more than 100 climate-related research projects, with Harvard University hit particularly hard, a new analysis finds. (MIT Technology Review)
Data centers skip the line: Texas residents grow frustrated as data center developers begin planning and building their own gas-fired power plants instead of waiting to connect to the grid, affecting nearby neighborhoods and locking in reliance on fossil fuels for decades to come. (Texas Tribune/Inside Climate News)
Gas’ growing consequences: Gas leaks, which are common in states with aging infrastructure, release hazardous pollutants that can extend far beyond the homes or neighborhoods where they happen and reach neighboring states. (Inside Climate News)
Regulatory switcheroo: President Trump nominates attorney Laura Swett to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, who analysts say will likely champion gas infrastructure and fossil fuel projects, in line with the White House’s priorities. (E&E News)
