Red Washington, greener states

Market forces will keep hurting coal, strengthening gas and supporting renewables—whatever Trump thinks about climate science

Four months after Donald Trump's inauguration his federal government has already started rolling back years of federal climate policies. It's not yet clear, though, what the union's states will do. So far, President Trump has announced Executive Orders that cut the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) budget by a third, overturn regulations governing toxic coal-mine waste, suspend work on the Clean Power Plan (CPP) and loosen restrictions on emissions of methane from oil and gas production. That fulfils some of the campaign promises, although the market and its cheap gas, wind and solar—not DC—will decide whether Trump's measures bring back the coal jobs he pledged. For now, Trump is slas