Apparently There's A "Generative AI Arms Race With China", Which Means Discounting, Digging And Burning All The Coal
The U.S. announced its intention to compete for a 21st-century technology using 19th-century energy on Monday when the Trump administration revealed a slew of deregulatory actions and new investments in the dirtiest, most greenhouse-gas-intensive fossil fuels. At a gathering in Washington, D.C., officials from the Department of the Interior, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Energy trumpeted their support for the nation’s coal industry, which they say will enable the U.S. to win the generative artificial intelligence “arms race with China.”
U.S. coal has experienced a decades-long decline as cheaper natural gas displaced its market share and renewable energy continues to account for a growing proportion of energy on the grid. Even as the Trump administration tries to reverse these trends by walking back or delaying safety and health regulations for miners and reopening public lands to coal mining, among other actions, energy forecasters expect coal to become a more expensive, less-used form of energy. None of those market dynamics—or climate change—were mentioned Monday at the Interior Department, where coal employees backdropped senior Trump officials assembled in front of senators and governors from coal-rich states.
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On Monday, Burgum announced 13.1 million acres of public land would be opened to new coal development, and added that the federal government is lowering the royalty rate from a floor of 12.5 percent to a “ceiling of 7 percent.” After a pause, he asked for applause. (Ed. - "Please clap!" ) Lowering federal royalty rates could negatively impact states like Wyoming, where the Interior Department just announced an auction of 3,500 acres of public lands for new coal mines. Wyoming, the country’s largest coal producer, typically splits revenue from coal royalties with the federal government, and it could lose out on $50 million annually under the lower royalty rate, according to a state-authored analysis. Wyoming’s coal is mostly used to fuel power plants. Some of the country’s coal is instead exported overseas to make steel.
In addition to the Interior Department’s actions, EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin announced that the agency would repeal dozens of rules, delay limits on coal ash wastewater discharges from coal plants and reexamine the country’s Regional Haze program, which governs air quality and pollution from power plants. “In the course of one year, we will do more deregulation at the EPA than entire federal governments have done across all federal agencies across entire presidencies,” Zeldin said.
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https://insideclimatenews.org/news/29092025/trump-administration-announces-coal-industry-efforts/