By Thomas Stevenson | The Post Millennial
On Tuesday, President Donald Trump signed an executive order seeking to increase domestic coal energy production as well as designate coal as a mineral, as the president is looking to increase energy production in the United States. This is a move both to insulate the US against overseas energy tumult and create more energy to fuel the AI sector.
The order states that it is meant to reinvigorate “America’s beautiful clean coal industry,” and directs “relevant agencies to identify coal resources on Federal lands, lift barriers to coal mining, and prioritize coal leasing on those lands.” The biggest coal producing states are Wyoming, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Illinois, and Kentucky.
In addition to streamlining the process and getting agencies to prioritize leasing land for coal mining, the order also “requires agencies to rescind any agency policies that seek to transition the Nation away from coal production or otherwise establish preferences against coal as a generation resource.” This is a direct comment on the Biden administration’s Green New Deal and Inflation Reduction Act, which attempted to shift American energy production away from fossil fuels and toward solar and wind. The green energy policies set by the Biden administration were a hallmark of his time in the White House.