BDN cites Rubin in editorial on Trump’s pledge to ‘bring back coal’
Jonathan Rubin, a professor of resource economics and policy at the University of Maine, was cited in the Bangor Daily News editorial, “Trump should look beyond the past, stop promising to make coal great again.” Demand for coal in the U.S. has dropped because natural gas is a cheaper alternative. So, the only way President-elect Donald Trump can “bring back coal” is to raise the price of natural gas, according to the editorial. This would be especially harmful to people in Maine, where natural gas is increasingly used to generate electricity and heat homes, the BDN argues. Regulations around health concerns, not climate change, have long increased the price of coal, the editorial states. Unless Trump plans to seek the repeal of the Clean Air Act or mercury rules, he won’t start a coal renaissance, according to Rubin.