President Donald Trump's quest to conduct a resurgence of coal production and utilization in the U.S. is farfetched and unlikely, according to energy experts.
On Tuesday, Trump signed an executive order to expand the mining and use of coal in the U.S. The action directs the Interior Department to facilitate coal leases for millions of acres of public lands and instructs the Energy Department and other agencies to research whether coal can be used to supply electricity for artificial intelligence data centers.
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However, coal power capacity has been declining in the U.S. in recent decades, according to the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis. In 2011, coal accounted for more than 40% of total electricity generation in the U.S. By 2016, that percentage had dropped to about 16%.
The major driver for the decline in coal use is the economic competition with cheaper and cleaner fuels, such as natural gas and renewables, Ryna Cui, research director for the Center for Global Sustainability at the University of Maryland, told ABC News.
"Coal plants are no longer economically viable, and these executive orders will do nothing to change the basic underlying market dynamics," said Sanya Carley, presidential distinguished professor at the Kleinman Center for Energy Policy at the University of Pennsylvania, told ABC News.
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Trump's executive order may slightly extend the lifetime of existing coal plants -- as well as ramp up production over the next several years -- but it is implausible that new ones will be built, Carley said.
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