Coal
Clinton’s energy plan aims to reduce coal use by cutting fossil fuel emissions by up to 30% by 2025 and more than 80% by 2050, consistent with the terms of the Paris agreement, an international climate agreement ratified by more than 60 countries. Clinton intends to defend President Barack Obama’s Clean Power Plan (CPP), arguably the most significant energy regulation to date and one that focuses on reducing carbon pollution from sources such as coal and strengthening the transition to clean energy. Clinton has publically stated, “We’re going to put a lot of coal miners and coal companies out of business,” a comment that angered and alienated many in the coal industry. While including a stated plan to reduce fossil fuel reliance, Clinton’s energy plan also includes a $30 billion initiative to invest in the economic diversification of former coal-mining towns. This innovation would support long-term health care for retired coal miners, help coal workers find jobs in emerging industries, such as renewable energy, and work to redevelop former coal-mine sites for new uses. This innovation would be financed with appropriated resources from the Abandoned Mine Reclamation Fund.
Trump’s energy plan involves eliminating regulation that impacts the growth of the coal industry. Trump supports ramping up fossil fuel production and to use it as a way to assist in job growth and lead to a resurgence in American manufacturing. Trump has stressed his plans to pull out of the Paris agreement and roll back emissions reduction targets. He supports deregulating fossil fuels such as coal, and has pointed to data indicating that lifting federal regulations on American energy production will amount to a $700 billion increase in annual economic output. He has vowed to eliminate the CPP, rescind the Waters of the U.S. Rule (Clean Water Rule) that clarifies which waters and wetlands would fall under federal protection, revoke the more stringent 2015 ozone standards, and streamline permitting for energy projects. Trump has also stated that climate change is a hoax and is supportive of rational environmental concerns, but not at the expense of decreasing the nation’s fossil fuel production.
In West Virginia, approximately 16,000 people directly work in the coal industry, which produces $7 billion in sales and pays several hundred millions dollars to the state annually in taxes. However, the number of people directly employed in coal mining in West Virginia has been on the decline for years, and mining employment fell 25% between 2014 and 2015. Mining-heavy states such as West Virginia are battlegrounds that Trump hopes to win over with his plans for coal. Despite inclusion of Clinton’s coal-mining initiative, many coal miners are expressing anger at her plan and hanging on to Trump as their only hope.
Oil and Natural Gas
Clinton’s energy plan includes promises to cut oil and gas subsidies. Clinton opposes Arctic drilling and is skeptical about oil production off the southeastern Atlantic coast. Trump’s plan would lift most restrictions on oil and gas companies and allow them to drill in the Arctic and the Gulf of Mexico. He intends to revoke policies that place restrictions on new drilling zones, including in the Arctic and the Atlantic coast. Clinton has touted domestically produced natural gas as playing an important role in the transition to a clean energy economy. Clinton supports fracking, but she emphasizes the importance of creating new standards and safeguards to make fracking safer and less environmentally destructive and supports the rights of localities to ban it. Taking a similar approach, Trump is committed to the use of natural gas and supports fracking, although he has said that states and municipalities should be allowed to ban the drilling practice.
Renewables
Clinton’s energy plan focuses primarily on renewable energy. Clinton has a goal to generate half of the U.S.’s electricity from renewable resources such as solar, wind, and hydroelectric, by the end of her first term as president and grow renewable energy so that it powers 100% of American homes by 2027. Her strategies for accomplishing this include investing in clean energy research and installing 500 million solar panels by the end of her first term. She plans to launch a $60 billion clean energy challenge to partner with local municipalities to cut carbon pollution and expand clean-energy technology to lower-income families. She also aims to increase solar capacity to 140 gigawatts by the end of 2020, a 700% increase from current levels. Trump, on the other hand, has repeatedly bashed renewable energy sources. He has stated that green energy is behind the times, that solar energy is an unproven technology, and that wind turbines are responsible for the destruction of shorelines.
These contrasting positions on renewable energy underscore the unprecedented divide between the two presidential candidates on issues of energy and climate. Given the enormous gulf between Clinton’s and Trump’s policies, the trajectory of the nation’s energy future is truly in the hands of the American voters.
Megan Caldwell is an environmental attorney in the Denver, Colorado, office of Husch Blackwell. She can be reached at Megan.Caldwell@huschblackwell.com.
