Coal vs. natural gas -gas on the upswing, coal on the down. EIA chart

President Donald Trump with a stroke of a pen wiped out environmental rules put in place by President Obama toward the end of his administration. Trump's actions make it easier to mine on federal lands, instructs regulators to rewrite the rules on federal admissions and attempts to roll back the Clean Power Act.

The President's actions were lauded by Kentucky Governor Matt Bevin in a press release. "I applaud President Trump's signing of the American energy independence executive order. This order will roll back former President Obama's job killing and deceptively named "Clean Power Plan (CPP)," which was not based on sound science. Even the former EPA administrator admitted that the CPP would have had negligible effect on global temperatures..."

The stated goal of bringing back Kentucky's coal industry will run into issues that have nothing to do with presidential edicts. Natural gas is cheaper. Wind and solar are gaining parity with coal. Power suppliers - even those here in Kentucky - are phasing out coal production facilities. Kentucky coal production facilities retired 10% of coal production facilities in 2015 according to Kentucky.com

US Energy Information Administration reported in March 2016 "For decades, coal has been the dominant energy source for generating electricity in the United States. EIA's Short-Term Energy Outlook (STEO) is now forecasting that 2016 will be the first year that natural gas-fired generation exceeds coal generation in the United States on an annual basis. Natural gas generation first surpassed coal generation on a monthly basis in April 2015, and the generation shares for coal and natural gas were nearly identical in 2015, each providing about one-third of all electricity generation."

President Trump's action will boost exploration not for coal deposits but for oil and gas. More oil and gas will accelerate coal's diminishing importance. So, while Obama got the blame for coal's demise, Trump's rollback looks to increase supplies of natural gas.

It seems to be a cruel joke on Kentuckians who believed he would bring back coal jobs.