Five Takeaways From Trumps Plan to Rescue Coal

Hard hats are back.So is “beautiful, clean” coal.President Trump signed four executive orders on Tuesday to try to bolster the country’s declining coal industry, including the lifting of restrictions on mining and burning of the dirtiest fossil fuel.In addition to waiving air pollution limits and other regulations on coal imposed by the Biden administration, Mr.

Trump directed the Justice Department to go after states like California that have sought to tackle climate change by reducing the use of fossil fuels.“I call it beautiful, clean coal — I tell my people to never use the word ‘coal’ unless you put ‘beautiful, clean’ before it,” Mr.Trump said in the East Room of the White House surrounded by dozens of mostly men in hard hats.

“We’re ending Joe Biden’s war on beautiful, clean coal once and for all.”Here are five takeaways from Mr.Trump’s directives.Miners as backdropsMr.

Trump has always loved the coal miner as a masculine symbol.At the White House ceremony on Tuesday, he repeatedly referred to the burly men who surrounded him, joking about whether the stage could handle their collective weight and about arm wrestling several of them.He recalled how during his 2016 campaign against Hillary Clinton, she was talking about job retraining for miners.

“She was going to put them in a high-tech industry where you make little cellphones and things,” he said as he gestured daintily and laughed.Coal itself is a strong fossil fuel, he said.“Pound for pound, coal is the single most reliable, durable, secure and powerful form of energy,” Mr.

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