AP FACT CHECK: Trump on coal
Posted Jan 31, 2018 01:21:52 AM.
Last Updated Jan 31, 2018 02:00:49 AM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
WASHINGTON – A look at one of President Donald Trump’s statements from his State of the Union address on Tuesday night and how it compares with the facts:
TRUMP: “We have ended the war on beautiful clean coal.”
THE FACTS: Coal is not clean. According to the Energy Department, more than 83 per cent of all major air pollutants — sulfur dioxide, carbon dioxide, toxic mercury and dangerous soot particles — from power plants are from coal, even though coal makes up only 43 per cent of the power generation. Power plants are the No. 1 source of those pollutants.
Coal produces nearly twice as much heat-trapping carbon dioxide per energy created as natural gas, the department says.
In 2011, coal burning emitted more than 6 million tons of sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides versus 430,000 tons from other energy sources combined.
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EDITOR’S NOTE _ A look at the veracity of claims by political figures
