Everything old is new again. I wish that it were a recycling of resources, instead of a renewed disregard for the environment, parks and historical preservation. But, while the Trump administration dismantles environmental regulations—bring back coal!—Nevadans can find some solace in knowing that it has made significant strides against fossil fuels.
In fact, as President Trump promised the “end of the war on coal” last month, NV Energy closed down the fourth and final coal-fired power generator at the Reid Gardner Generating Station in Moapa, 50 miles northeast of Las Vegas. For NV Energy, it was the fulfillment of a promise made years ago—the plant had long been the subject of environmental controversy. Most notably, members of the nearby Moapa Paiute Tribe alleged that the coal ash and emissions caused health problems in their community. The closure marked ongoing efforts by NV Energy to move to renewable resources: Upon flipping off the generator switch, officials announced that since 2005, the power company had reduced carbon emissions by 44 percent, and now has just one remaining coal-fueled power plant in the state, near Battle Mountain.
In the same stretch of days, Trump was gutting environmental regulations, signing another executive order and disregarding technology and cheaper energy sources by telling crowds, “We are going to put coal miners back to work!”
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Widespread misunderstandings prevail. In addition to the unlikelihood that coal mining will flourish, another common misunderstanding is that coal is produced by tapping deep into a layer of decomposed dinosaur fossils. Coal is actually a fossil fuel created primarily by aged and compressed plant and animal matter that predates the dinosaur eras. But dinosaur fossils, too, have a place in our understanding of Earth, and a place in our national parks—unless, of course, the parks don’t have the resources to protect them, and people are idiots. To wit:
Also last month, dinosaur track fossils were stolen from Death Valley National Park. The tracks were some
3 million years old, and someone
decided it was okay to trek in, extract them and take them home.
Curious about where these kinds of historic treasures end up, I did some Googling and found that you can buy dinosaur tracks from sites like fossilshack.com and nashdinosaurtracks.com, although presumably these sites are not selling tracks illegally taken from preservation sites. Track fossils from these sources go for anywhere from $55 to $500. Who knows how much the tracks stolen from Death Valley are worth?
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Fortunately, everything is going to be fine. The magnanimous Trump decided recently to donate his first quarter salary, some $78,000, to the National Park Service. This generosity comes after proposing a budget that would cut funding to the Department of the Interior by 12 percent and funding to the Environmental Protection Agency by 31 percent. This, while his weekly trips to his Florida club Mar-a-Lago cost taxpayers an estimated $3 million per trip. This, while Mar-a-Lago’s annual membership fees have climbed from a reported $100,000 to a $200,000. But thanks for the $78,000, man whose only outdoor activity appears to be golf—not big on the National Park Service agenda.
“Agencies like the National Park Service and EPA cannot take care of our treasured landscapes and historical landmarks with further cuts to what are already shoestring budgets,” said John Gardner, Director of Budget and Appropriations for National Parks Conservation Association after the president’s budget was released last month. “Our parks face many challenges that require more funding, not less. This budget proposal, if enacted, would threaten the air, water, wildlife habitat, historic protections and interpretative services critical to national park sites.”
So it was an interesting March. While someone was stealing dinosaur footprint fossils in Death Valley, Trump was renewing interest in fossil fuels to enlarge our carbon footprint, dismantling park services and environmental protections, but tossing a pittance toward the National Park Service. At least Nevada was seeing some reduction in use of fossil fuels, and, hopefully, we can maintain that direction.
But we are nothing if not conflicted beasts stomping all over the earth.
