Unfit for office

The Trump administration unveiled yet another rollback Thursday for a major Obama-era climate rule — proposing to ease restrictions on future coal power plants even as the industry shows little interest in building any.

The proposal from the Environmental Protection Agency comes amid dire warnings from scientists about the massive costs and devastating impacts of global warming, and as the U.S. and nearly 200 other nations meet this week for a climate conference in Poland.

Coal advocates praised the move, but energy industry experts said they see little chance that the once-dominant fuel will recover from its years of steep declines amid stagnant electricity demand and market competition from natural gas and wind. Domestic coal consumption is on track to fall this year to its lowest level since 1979 and is expected to drop another 8 percent next year, the Energy Information Administration said Monday.

[...]

One major power generator, Colorado-based Xcel Energy, said just this week that it will move to entirely carbon-free sources by 2050 after getting more than a third of its electricity from coal last year.

“Given current market conditions (plentiful natural gas supply, growing renewable energy targets in many states, increasing interest in energy storage in many states, and sluggish demand) we are not expecting new coal-fired power plant development, even without the requirement to integrate [carbon capture and storage],” Christi Tezak, managing director at Clearview Energy Partners, said in an email.

[...]

The Energy Department's projections don’t envision any new coal coming online, and the last significant coal plant to open in the U.S. was in 2012.

[...]

David Doniger, senior strategic director for the climate and clean energy at the Natural Resources Defense Council, said President Donald Trump is trying to defy an irreversible trend.

  Politico

Who are these "coal advocates"?

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) took to the floor Thursday to endorse the action.

"This is a crucial step toward undoing the damage and putting coal back on a level playing field,” said McConnell, whose state is the fifth-biggest producer of coal in the U.S.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.