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Yahoo
2 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Opinion - The decline of coal isn't a conspiracy — it's the market reality
A core misunderstanding fuels a recent lawsuit that has made headlines. The Republican attorneys general of Texas and 10 other states have accused some of the nation's largest asset managers of 'colluding' to harm coal companies, claiming falsely that the decline of coal is the result of some coordinated political vendetta rather than simple, demonstrable market economics. With the Justice Department and Federal Trade Commission joining the conversation, it is important to delve into the details and consider market trends over the past few decades. Coal's decline in the U.S. did not start with asset managers or so-called 'environmental, social and governance' or ESG investment policies. It started decades ago, with the shale gas revolution, when fracking technology unleashed an abundant, cheap and cleaner-burning alternative. U.S. Energy Information Administration data show that U.S. coal production was 1.13 trillion short tons in 2001, but by 2020 that number had declined to 535 billion short tons — its lowest level since 1965. Natural gas outcompeted coal because it made economic sense. It has lower operating costs, fewer regulatory burdens and, perhaps most importantly, reduced environmental impact. Add in the drop in the cost of renewables, and coal's decline was predictable. Asset managers saw the writing on the wall and adjusted their investments, as their fiduciary duty to their clients demands. This is about economics, not ideology — business decisions, not politics. Power utilities, manufacturers and even global markets have made decisions based on price, efficiency and reliability. We know this because coal's decline happened in both public and private coal companies. Coal companies themselves have noted the decline in prior Securities and Exchange Commission annual reports. Capital flows based on competitive advantage, not political talking points. What these attorneys general attempt to frame as 'coal collusion' is, in fact, a textbook example of fiduciary responsibility and following industry direction. Asset managers have a legal duty to evaluate long-term risks and returns for their clients. When coal projects increasingly face uncertain demand, regulatory headwinds and operational volatility, it is prudent investing to limit exposure. The lawsuit itself notes that coal production increased (incrementally) in 2021, the first year of the supposed 'conspiracy.' This further shows the inconsistency of the argument, raising questions about whether the lawsuit is really about coal or about weaponizing an economic trend — a dangerous precedent to set. We must be honest about what's happening to coal, and to energy more broadly. Rather than distort reality for short-term political gain, let's focus on developing solutions that respect our economic system, support innovation and ensure energy security. The real conversation we should be having is about ensuring energy abundance through all means. Let's talk about how to accelerate nuclear energy, streamline permitting for cleaner domestic production, invest in resilient grid infrastructure, and maintain American leadership in next-generation energy technologies. Allowing for a truly 'all of the above' energy strategy enables investments in diverse, dependable and secure energy sources. Climate, energy and market decisions are complex and intertwined. They deserve meticulous debate. It's time to refocus the conversation on pragmatism and opportunity — not partisan politicking. We should all care about America's energy future, and to best do so, we have to stop pretending market evolution is sabotage. The decline of coal in the U.S. is simply capitalism doing exactly what conservatives have always trusted it to do: adapt and allocate capital where it best serves growth, stability and prosperity. Benji Backer is the Founder and CEO of Nature Is Nonpartisan. He also serves as the executive chairman of the American Conservation Coalition and is the best-selling author of 'The Conservative Environmentalist: Common Sense Solutions for a Sustainable Future.' Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
25-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Perspective: Being American should trump partisanship
In March of 1981, President Ronald Reagan was shot and critically wounded. Before being wheeled into surgery, Reagan, known for his good-natured quips, famously said to his doctors, 'Please tell me you're Republicans.'' Dr. Joseph Martin Giordano, the director of George Washington University Hospital's trauma unit, replied, ''Mr. President, right now, everybody is a Republican.'' But Giordano was a registered Democrat, and he and his team saved Reagan's life. Giordano was one of the best in his field, and throughout his presidency, Reagan never doubted the goodwill of most Americans of any party. But this spirit is under assault today. Nowhere can this be seen more clearly than in a recent tempest-in-a-teapot regarding three Republican attorneys general — Dave Yost of Ohio, Alan Wilson of South Carolina and Lynn Fitch of Mississippi — who are taking public flak for hiring law firms that predominately donate to Democrats for litigation related to the opioid crisis and other complex cases. To be sure, there is a difference between life-saving medical treatment and patronizing law firms which are involved in the political process. But they share underlying issues in common. The fiercest criticism comes from a group called the Alliance for Consumers, an organization which seems focused on electing Republican attorneys general. O. H. Skinner, the group's executive director, deems the practice of hiring Democratic connected law firms 'unsophisticated,' and his sentiments are echoed by Mississippi auditor Shad White, a Republican who sees the differences as 'generational,' the 'old guard,' who wants to keep the status quo, vs. the young turks who want to 'ruffle some feathers.' But the conversation raises the question: ruffle feathers, for what purpose? White and the Alliance for Consumers suggest that partisanship alone is the most important consideration that requires feathers be ruffled. That's a downright dangerous point of view. Yost, the Ohio AG, didn't mince words when it came to defending his record: 'A blanket refusal to use a qualified firm based solely on perceived political leanings wouldn't just be bad government, it would be bad legal strategy. We seek out firms and lawyers with the competency to win cases, not ones who check ideological boxes.' His position is the right one. Indeed, there's a certain irony about a group called the Alliance for Consumers arguing, in essence, that the amount of money won in a lawsuit involving the opioid crisis —over $700 million in South Carolina alone — is less important than partisan loyalties. The entire point of such litigation is for the benefit of consumers who have been hurt by practices that federal courts deemed harmful. The past decade has seen extreme partisan swings, from Democrat to Republican and back again. Widespread disenchantment with both parties cannot rationally be said to be a result of too little partisanship. While it is always difficult to judge the complex positions of more than 150 million American voters, the more likely scenario is that a failure of our political leaders to accomplish much of anything lasting is at the core of voter dissatisfaction. Prioritizing donations to your favored political party cannot but lead to worse public policy over time. Something much more fundamental is lost if we allow partisanship of this sort to take center stage. The rules of a free society are, by necessity, relatively fewer and less restrictive. And as such, a certain amount of good faith is required when we seek to operate in the best interests of the public. While it is unrealistic to assume partisanship will play no role, forcing party loyalty to center stage, at all times, destroys the trust required for a large, pluralistic society to function well. The consequences are more than a simple loss of collegiality, as important as that is. Such behavior also leads to the belief that we'll be treated unfairly when the 'other side' takes power. The late Sen. Henry M. 'Scoop' Jackson (D-WA), famous for treating his Republican colleagues fairly, once said, 'Although I am a Democrat, and will work hard for the Democratic victory in November, I respect my Republican friends and their views — and wish them well 364 days a year. On election day, it's a little harder.' That's a much better vision as to how partisanship should work. Am I making too much out of a simple dispute over what law firms a few state attorneys general contract with? That's certainly possible. In the wide range of things to be outraged about, this dispute is relatively minor. But too many of the problems in our current political climate have occurred because too few people raise alarm when small things are doing violence to larger, more fundamental and important truths. Back to Ronald Reagan: He famously, and repeatedly, asked then Speaker of the House Tip O'Neill, a Democrat, if it was 6 p.m. yet. He meant that, while they might be foes during the work day, they could be friends after work. In truth, O'Neill didn't think a lot of Reagan, as he made clear in his memoirs, but the men still kept things collegial. Even if this principle is not always, or even usually, upheld, it should be something to aim for. If Republicans and Democrats don't view each other as Americans first, our nation, and both parties, will pay the price in the long term.
Fox News
23-05-2025
- Politics
- Fox News
Republican AGs visit US-Mexico border wall as Trump's 'big, beautiful bill' clears expansion funding
YUMA, ARIZ. – Republican attorneys general from 11 states visited the U.S.-Mexico border wall in remote Yuma, Arizona, this week, touting a more than 90% decrease in illegal crossings since President Donald Trump began his second term. Their visit came a day before the House narrowly passed Trump's "big, beautiful bill," which in part allocates $46.5 billion to revive construction of the wall, which at its current stage covers just a quarter of the approximately 1,900-mile-long stretch separating the United States from Mexico. In Yuma, a city of just 110,000 people, local officials briefed the Republican attorneys general of Kansas, Mississippi, Kentucky, South Carolina, North Dakota, South Dakota, Utah, Alabama, Montana, Iowa and Indiana on how an average of 1,500 people were illegally crossing the border a day during the first six months of the Biden administration. That's dropped to about four daily illegal crossings since Trump took office. In addition to the border wall itself, Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach -- chairman of the Republican Attorneys General Association – told Fox News Digital the administration needs other "force multipliers," especially with the task of carrying out the "largest interior removal since the Eisenhower administration." He announced an additional three GOP states entered into 287(G) agreements with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), which means local and state deputies and officers are trained to exercise federal law enforcement powers, including making immigration-related arrests, initiating removal processes, conducting investigations and tapping into ICE databases. "The thing the Trump administration needs the most right now is force multipliers," Kobach said. "Even if we doubled the number of Border Patrol agents at ICE stations, we still wouldn't have enough. This border wall, which I'm looking at, is one force multiplier at the border. The other big force multiplier is state and local law enforcement signing 287(g) agreements and then helping ICE in the interior. And that's where the red states are leading the way." South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson said 540 kilograms of fentanyl and 850 kilograms of cocaine were trafficked into the Palmetto State, originating from Mexican drug cartels. One kilo alone is enough to kill half a million people. "This is the kind of stuff that keeps me up at night. I have two teenage kids in high school. When you hear about parents losing a kid in an overdose, it really strikes at your core. And so it's not just about law enforcement, it's about national security," Wilson told Fox News Digital. "As a 29-year veteran of the Army, an Iraq war veteran. I think in terms of national security, as well as law enforcement. This right here, what happens here, President Trump's policies here have empowered local law enforcement and local and state prosecutors like myself to be able to more effectively combat the illicit activity, starting with Mexican drug cartels and gangs like Tren de Aragua." Wilson said it is important to fortify a "digital border," noting how Mexican drug cartels, Chinese nationals and other illicit criminal organizations launder the proceeds of human and drug trafficking and other crimes using platforms such as WeChat. Wilson has partnered with North Carolina Attorney General Jeff Jackson, a Democrat, and attorneys general from four other states in a bipartisan effort to target the Chinese app allegedly linked to the international fentanyl trade. The 11 Republican attorneys general in Yuma highlighted the importance of making the trip to the southern border despite their home states not directly bordering Mexico. Under the Biden administration, the Republicans argued that every state became a border state with the trafficking of fentanyl and other deadly drugs, as well as people across the border. "In the dark days of the Biden administration, this part of the border saw 1,500 illegal crossings a day. Today? Just four. That's leadership," Kentucky Attorney General Russell Coleman said. "In Kentucky, we lost 1,400 lives last year to drugs coming over this border. That's not abstract—it's empty chairs at kitchen tables. I'm here to thank the men and women who wear the badge, who've made this border secure again." "Alabama may not be a border state, but we've seen the cost of an open border – fentanyl deaths, rising crime. The difference now? It's not the law that changed, it's the leadership," Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall said. "Border encounters are down 93%, gotaways down 95%. That's the result of letting immigration enforcement do their jobs. We're no longer the last line of defense—we're partners in restoring the rule of law." "When federal officials can't do their jobs, every state becomes a border state—even Indiana," Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita said. "We were the first non-border state to sue the Biden administration over its lawless immigration policies. Now, under new leadership, morale at the border has skyrocketed. I'm here not just for our law enforcement, but for the teachers overwhelmed by the fallout, for the parents and professionals caught in a broken system. Enough is enough." A stop on the tour included seeing pallets of $2 million worth of border wall supplies paid for under Trump's first term that the Biden administration prevented federal contractors from erecting – something Kobach categorized as "dereliction of duty" and "deliberate efforts to keep our border open." The Republican attorneys general also heard from the local hospital system, which incurred $26 million in unreimbursed care costs during a six-month period between December 2021 and May 2022 primarily due to treating migrants. At the peak of the crisis, approximately 350,000 illegal aliens crossed the border through the Yuma sector in a single year under the Biden administration. The surge caused $1.2 million in losses to three family farms in the region, as migrants camped out and defecated around crops. Local officials underscored the national food security risks, given that Yuma produces 2,500 semi-loads of leafy greens per day during peak season. The Marine Top Gun School brings thousands more U.S. Marines to Yuma every six months, but live-fire drills had to be shut down due to the surge in illegal crossings near ranges, local officials told the attorneys general, highlighting how military readiness was also impacted due to the Biden border crisis.
