Despite Republican efforts to bring back coal as a fuel source, a new report by the Brookings Institution says coal-fired power plants will continue to close despite the arrival of the Trump administration.
As The Rural Blog reports,climate-change deniers such as Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt--who has been tapped to head the EPA--have been vehemently opposed to the Obama administration’s Clean Power Plan. They’ve vowed to end what they call the “war on coal.”
But according to the Brookings report, the idea of a war on coal is “a false narrative that oversimplifies what is happening in the energy economy.” The report charges that, by blaming the Obama administration as the sole reason for the recent turmoil in the coal sector, these officials “ignore fundamental market realities.”
The report noted that clean energy is continuing to increase its market share of its own volition, thanks to declining costs and increased efficiency.