Trump’s coal order concerns environmentalists
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. >> Environmentalists are gravely concerned about President Trump’s efforts to boost the ailing coal industry, and how this could harm the Adirondacks by increasing acid rain.
Many North Country lakes, streams and waterways have started coming back to life following adoption of a 1990 Clean Air Act amendment that reduced harmful power plant emissions.
This week, however, Trump signed an executive order that seeks to repeal the Obama Administration’s Clean Power Plan, which called for increased use of natural gas, wind and solar in place of coal.
“We need to make it clear what the stakes are, how the Adirondacks will suffer economically and environmentally if the coal industry is reinvigorated in the United States,” said John Shee- han, Adirondack Council spokesman.
Pollution greatly impacts tourism and recreation, major components of the upstate New York economy. Emissions primarily come from Midwestern power plants, flow to the Northeast and fall with rain and snow.
Some power companies had already started converting to natural gas, or at least installing more modern equipment, in anticipation of the Clean Power
Plan’s implementation. This resulted in a marked decrease in sulfur and nitrogen emissions, which produce acid rain, the past few years, Sheehan said.
Coal’s share of the U. S. power market has dwindled from more than 50 percent last decade to about 32 percent last year. Production fell to 739 million tons last year, the lowest level in almost four decades, the Associated Press reports.
Trump’s order isn’t expected to have a dramatic immediate impact because of protections afforded by the Clean Air Act, Sheehan said.
“The law says they have to protect the Northeast from smog, acid rain and climate change,” he said.
So, even if it isn’t as strict environmentally, Trump would have to replace Obama’s Power Plan with a proposal of his own.
It’s very similar to his attempt, which didn’t materialize, to replace the Affordable Care Act — commonly called Obamacare — with a new healthcare plan.
Still, environmentalists are greatly concerned about anything that might roll back the steps made to reduce emissions and promote cleaner, healthier lakes the past 30-plus years.
The fight against acid rain is one issue that’s united Northeast state and U. S. officials on both sides of the political aisle, from right-wing conservatives to left-leaning liberals, Sheehan said.
He said he’s hopeful New York’s upstate congressional delegation will convince the Trump Administration to support, rather than oppose such efforts.
U. S. Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-Willsboro, is a member of the bipartisan Climate Solutions Caucus and favors dealing with climate change in economically viable ways, spokesman Tom Flanagin said.
A resolution she recently co-introduced calls for improved environmental stewardship through “economically viable, and broadly supported private and public solutions to study and address the causes and effects of measured changes to our global and regional climates.”
Additionally, Stefanik does not support the president’s initial budget proposal, especially proposed cuts to the U. S. Environmental Protection Agency, Flanagin said.