For decades, US energy policy tried to reduce carbon emissions by shifting from fossil fuel-based energies to the renewables. Because of this, the US was able to curb energy-related carbon emissions, so that last year it reached the lowest levels since 1990. Unfortunately, the Trump administration has flipped the script.

In a memo leaked last week, President Trump asked Energy Secretary Rick Perry to prepare "immediate steps" to rescue unprofitable coal and nuclear plants. The Trump administration has sought to protect these industries because it believes that the loss of both coal and nuclear plants could "threaten national security, given that Department of Defense installations are 99 percent dependent on the grid." This is despite evidence suggesting that there is no emergency, and that plants can be retired in an orderly way that will not undermine the reliability of the power grid.

Trump has long expressed his support to the coal industry. With slogans like, "You're going back to work," Trump made the coal industry believe that there may be a bright future ahead of them. Some argue that Trump "helped drive a renaissance in coal exports," by lowering costs for producers with laxer environmental and safety regulations, and that Trump has had a positive influence on the coal industry. Yet coal plant closures have continued apace, and some argue that Trump has simply slowed, rather than halted, the decline of coal, and at tremendous environmental and consumer expense.

In the leaked memo, the Trump administration describes drastic and unprecedented measures to be implemented on the energy market in the light of increasing dependence on natural gas and renewables at the expense of coal and nuclear power. After an unsuccessful attempt to make the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission provide financial guarantees for many of coal and nuclear plants meeting certain stockpiling requirements, Rick Perry is exploring other solutions. The memo suggests exploiting Section 202(c) of the Federal Power Act, which has generally been reserved for emergency measures to be taken following a natural disaster. The memo also raises the possibility of implementing Cold-war era legislation called the Defense Production Act, which was originally designed to allow the president to prioritize national defense over civilian needs in the time of Korean War. President Trump thinks it may be appropriate to rescue coal using the same measure.

Rescue packages to keep nuclear power plants afloat are less contentious for environmentalists, since nuclear power is a comparatively clean source of energy. Just recently, New York State and New Jersey offered financial aid to their nuclear power plants. Still, it's unclear if the administration's actions will survive various expected legal challenges.

With raising awareness of energy-related carbon emissions and falling costs of energy production from renewables and natural gas thanks to fracking, coal and the nuclear industry are both under pressure.