Peabody Energy, the largest coal company in the U.S., is leading the fight in court to nullify the administration’s Clean Power Plan that would reduce greenhouse gas emissions from coal-fired power plants. Oral arguments will be heard in federal court June 2.
Three of the nation’s four largest coal companies have filed for bankruptcy protection during the past year based primarily on lagging demand for coal both here and in China.
Some 27 states, all led by Republican governors, have joined the suit and yet these very states are often the ones benefiting most from an accelerating shift to wind and solar energy.
Wind turbines and solar panels accounted for more than two-thirds of all new electric generation capacity added to the grid in 2015, according to an Associated Press account published May 6 based on an analysis by the U.S. Department of Energy.
The remaining one-third was largely from new power plants fueled by natural gas, a cleaner burning fossil fuel, which has become significantly cheaper as a result of hydraulic fracturing.
The process, also known as “fracking,” has its own detractors based on massive use of water that is injected into the earth to force trapped gas toward the surface where it can be captured. Fracking has also been blamed for clusters of earthquakes in areas of the Midwest where they previously hadn’t been an issue.
Republican lawmakers have been trying to protect coal-fired power plants by fighting President Obama’s efforts to curtail climate warming carbon emissions. And yet, the states they represent are those most likely to reap the rewards of burgeoning renewable energy sources, according to the A.P. report. It makes one recall the book, “What’s the Matter with Kansas?” in which the author analyzes that state’s penchant for voting against its own fiscal interests.
Another book of interest is John Grisham’s novel “Gray Mountain.” Set in the heart of Appalachia where the land itself is under attack by Big Coal, it lists tricks by coal companies to circumvent laws and avoid paying legal judgments to residents harmed by decades of mountaintop removal.
As the Republican Party is trying desperately to quell an insurrection caused by the presidential candidacy of Donald Trump and his penchant for spouting politically incorrect epithets, GOP leaders are fighting to stop the country’s growing switch to renewable forms of energy.
While Republican senators, most notably Senate Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, say they’re protecting coal-mining jobs, the facts differ. Nationwide, coalmines now employ only 56,700 workers while the solar industry employs 210,000 and wind energy employs another 77,000, according to federal estimates.
McConnell, whose political career has depended heavily on coal-industry support, loves to call Obama’s efforts to curb climate-warming carbon emissions a “War on Coal” and his Clean Power Plan “job-killing” federal over reach.
The recent signing at the United Nations by a record number of countries, which agree on human-caused climate change and methods to implement reductions in carbon emissions, is a call to limit global warming and the already occurring destruction of low lying island nations. If nations of different cultures all over the world can accept the facts in agreement, why can’t our two political parties work together to accomplish similar goals?
More than two decades ago, author Bill McKibben warned about the ramifications of climate change. Legislators refused to listen, probably figuring these calamities wouldn’t happen on their watch. But, guess what; they’re now more imminent than just possible.
Nobody said the shift from fossil fuels to renewable energy would be easy. But surely it isn’t impossible and it is necessary. Instead of the divisive approach taken by Republican legislators to thwart that change and kill all efforts to restructure our energy production, we should unite to challenge the most pressing issue confronting our world.
It’s hard to know whether pending bankruptcies among coal companies will curtail their political giving during the upcoming election. But the industry is still spending heavily to protect its interests in Washington. If history counts, pro-coal interests spent millions to influence the 2014-midterm congressional elections. And more than 95 percent of that went to Republican candidates, according to non-partisan studies.
In the current court action, all but one of the 34 senators and 171 House members who have signed on to support the court challenge are Republicans. The sole democratic senator represents the coal-dependent state of West Virginia. Need we say more?