The promise of a new request is to drive certain public services to reconsider pensions of expected coal power plants. In Virginia, where Amazon web services maintain themselves 96 data centers and invest 35 million dollars To extend its campuses, the regional transmission organization, PJM Interconnection, requested a delayed retirement from two coal -fired power plants due to Increased request for data centers. The demand from Google and Meta Data Centers also kept a coal -fired power plant on the Nebraska online Passed his retirement date.
But keeping a patient in life is significantly different to bring back a corpse of the dead. A PJM frame said During a conference last month, it was not sure that the market “sends the signal at the moment that the coal should really stay.” Building new technologically up -to -date coal power plants – an idea that Trump has floated at the Tuesday presser – would be a difficult sale in an economy where investors are wary of capital investments for obsolete technology. Technological companies, on the other hand, concentrate long -term energy investments on nuclear poweras well as Renewable energies and battery technologies.
Even in states where coal exercises political power, data centers have not proved to be a savior. In March, Virginia-Western legislators Attached provisions To make the Midi the use of coal to a bill intended to relaunch the data center in the state. Despite the governor's cheerleading, the bill finally pass Without the provisions of coal after Appalachian Power, the largest public service in Virginie-Western, has intervened, saying that coal requirements would increase invoices for customers. A leader Tell legislators that even a new new customer as a data center would not light the public service to buy more energy on coal; Regulatory and financial reality, he said, promotes natural gas.
The regulations on emissions from coal centers are a clear target for this administration. Last month, EPA deployed a Suite of attacks On a wide strip of regulations, signaling its intention to reconsider everything, from the rules on power plant emissions to greenhouse gas. The agency too Created an email address To allow polluters to petition a temporary exemption from the standards of Mercury and Air Toxics stated under the Clean Act Act – known as the rugs rule – while the agency has reconsidered a multitude of pollution rules. COLSTRIP POWER PLENT DE MONTANA – one of the most dirty coal power plants in the country, which was struggle upgrades mandated by an updated pollution rule – has already request an exemption.
If the new decrees are a suggestion, the Trump administration considers this deregulation and the targeting of climate change policies, as a key element in the suppression of coal. A distinct presidential proclamation published Tuesday extension The carpet exemption for an unknown number of coal power plants, while another decree tasks The attorney general of the attack on climate regulations at the level of the state, distinguishing Vermont, New York and California.
It is possible that coal costs can drop slightly with fewer climate regulations. “You can manage all these coal -fired power plants without environmental regulation or reduction of environmental regulations – I am sure that this will save money in industry,” explains Feaster. “Let the communities around these places really want it to be another problem. These environmental regulations are there for a reason. ”
The costs, after all, are not only measured in dollars. Coal emissions include a mixture of heavy metals and chemicals, including sulfur dioxide, which can be fatal for people living around power plants. A study published in 2023 in Science Between 1999 and 2020, coal power plants were responsible for 460,000 excess deaths in the United States only. Coal waste, on the other hand, is stored in toxic ponds of ash; Dissements have a cost Some public services Millions of dollars in colonies.
Public services, says Feaster, have evaluated the risks to the health of coal and the responsibilities that come with coal in their decisions. But it is not clear if the Trump administration includes these risks. Health cuts and social services this month excluded Workers involved in black pulmonary research and other protections for coal minors at the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health.
Wednesday, when international markets melt, Donald Trump poster An invitation to verify companies to move their business in the United States. “No environmental delay,” he wrote. “Don't wait, do it now!”
