Visionary or Fool

This past week, President Donald Trump signed an order to begin the rollback of climate initiatives designed to curb global warming. It's possible that in reality he signed the death warrant for the planet.  It's also possible he merely created a beachfront opportunity for residents living on land three feet higher than today's Atlantic and Pacific coastlines. What he didn't do is revive the coal industry.

Trump suckered desparate voters in depressed mining states during the campaign by pledging to revive the dying industry through relaxing environmental regulation and climate initiatives curbing carbon dioxide emissions. This order does little to revive the industry but it does give Trump a chance to pay lip service to a pledge he cannot fulfill.

Despite the smiles at the White House at the signing, the fact remains no one is bullish on coal. Just as the automobile replaced the horse, natural gas is the fossil fuel replacement for coal. The economics are simple, it takes less than half the workers to operate a natual gas power plant than a coal fired one. Natural gas is as plentiful as any non-renwable resource, burns cleaner, and requires less overall infrastructure.  Do the math. The energy industry did. DTE CEO Gerry Anderson recently reiterrated the same when talking about retiring his company's coal plants in favor of new natural gas generating stations.

The motivation behind Trump's order is not clear. He's out of sync with industry and he's out of sync with science. That leaves him either visionary or fool. Today, there is no tangible vision.

Trump invited miner representatives to the White House for a photo op at the signing. It's hard not to feel sorry for them as Trump lies to their faces. More difficult is knowing what they apparently don't, their jobs have gone the way of blacksmiths.