Recently President Trump has made budget cuts to the EPA and the energy agency all while promoting the idea of using coal. The Trump administration, as they proposed during the election, want to bring back coal as a main contender in energy while tearing down clean energy. In his eyes, green energy will hurt business, the coal business in particular, these are the reasons why he is wrong. Ever since scientists noticed climate change in the 19th century, they have thought about ways to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions. One of these ways was through clean energy such as solar, wind, hydro, etc. Trump doesn’t believe there is a market in renewable clean energy and that coal is the only way to go because it already has an established market. Little does he know that the price of producing this energy is super low compared to coal. A 500MW power plant would cost $2.6 billion and $1.8 billion for a solar plant. Just building a solar plant alone saves money not to mention all the jobs that would need to be filled to help maintain, run, and manage the solar plant. In my opini on President Trump is uneducated about global warming and does not understand the benefits of clean energy, but the rest of the world, with or without his administrations help.

I definitely agree. Coal creates the highest carbon content of all the fossil fuels. Carbon dioxide emissions from coal were 24.5 % of the total U.S. greenhouse gas emissions in 2012. This is a significant amount because coal only counts for 8 % of all energy consumed. Other clean alternatives need to be adopted. Like you said, solar, hydro, and wind energy needs to be a primary topic of keeping our planet clean. Another way to stop these carbon emissions from coal is to develop potential climate policies such as low-emission technologies like carbon capture or other pollution control devices. These tools will be the key to reducing the impact of continued to coal use.

I think that this is a fascinating topic because of how currently relevant it is. Donald Trump wants to make a lot of changes that will stop our countries development towards cleaner energy. I also know that he wants to cut funds for the EPA making it harder for new technology and solutions to climate change to be developed. I wish that everyone in the United States understood the long term effects of using non-clean energy, like coal. Ways to prevent climate change and increase the use of clean energy such as wind power and solar energy have been recently improving hastily, but Trump wants to take steps backwards on these new technologies and solutions. Many people such as Trump think coal is the cheaper solution, but in both the short term and certainly the long term coal is much more expensive. It is also an unsustainable system so Trump needs to at least think about what we will do if we run out of coal. Because of his defunding of the EPA, the people that hav e been innovating on solutions will be slowed down. People need to realize all the consequences that will come from non-clean energy, and that Trump is taking a step back from our growth to a cleaner country.

There are so many cleaner options available such as solar, wind, and hydro electric. Even nuclear power may be a better bet than burning coal. The idea of bringing back coal and doing away with renewable energy is absolutely absurd!