Nevada’s Paris issues

Last week, Donald Trump said and tweeted, “China will be allowed to build hundreds of additional coal plants. So, we can’t build the plants, but they can, according to this agreement.”

This is true, but also a so-what point. China is cancelling coal plants—103 in January, according to Politifact—and has cut its use of coal for the last three years. And according to Source Watch, the United States has cancelled 106 plants out of 151 planned. So the two countries Trump tried in his rhetoric to pit against each other are actually working together.

Nevada is one of the beneficiaries of that policy, by the way. Two Nevada coal plants have been cancelled, a third is being taken out of production (with compensation to a nearby tribe for medical problems in the area), and a fourth—Valmy—will be closed by 2025. That will mean longer life expectancy and fewer heart, respiratory and nervous system maladies for Nevadans.

It will also mean more jobs, as renewables take up the slack. Nevada already hosts 8,764 workers in the solar field. Nevada has also barely started promoting its geothermal resources, which far outpace those of other states.

Trump also spoke of the “draconian financial and economic burdens the agreement imposes on our country.” The Paris agreement is non-binding.