☕ Why coal is back on the menu

Hey, everyone.

There’s a different kind of panic buying gathering speed - it’s not eggs, milk, or toilet paper, but iPhones. Consumers fear the wave of new tariffs that are now live will increase the cost of Apple products, so the time to buy that new phone they were thinking about is… right now. According to Bloomberg, Apple has been stockpiling iPhones in preparation for the tariffs, shipping as many as it could out of China.

It’s a kind of good news story for the tech giant, who has shed half a trillion dollars on the stock market in the past five days.

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Some headlines from this morning:

• Emergency services in the Dominican Republic are searching for survivors after the roof of a nightclub collapsed in the capital city, Santo Domingo. More than 98 people are believed to have been killed by the collapse, with at least 150 others injured. Dominican Republic President Luis Abinader has declared a national three-day mourning period.

• A federal judge has given the Trump administration until Sunday to lift a block on Associated Press journalists’ access to the Oval Office and Air Force One, or file an appeal. The AP lost its ‘special access’ to the president when it refused to call the Gulf of Mexico the Gulf of America after Trump signed an executive order to change its name. Judge Trevor McFadden said: “If the Government opens its doors to some journalists … it cannot then shut those doors to other journalists because of their viewpoints.”

• A genetics company has bred a new wolf hybrid that it says shares key traits with the extinct dire wolf. The prehistoric creature was once one of the top predators in North America. Colossal Biosciences used DNA extracted from a fossil and spliced with a gray wolf as its base to create three dire wolf pups. In response to criticism about its initial announcement, the company said it had developed an animal with “the key morphological traits, behavioral characteristics, and ecological functions that defined” dire wolves.

• Ukraine has captured two Chinese soldiers fighting for Russia in Ukraine’s Donetsk region. It’s the first time Ukraine has made an official allegation that China is actively participating in the conflict, with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy saying the arrests “puts into question China’s declared stance for peace”. Neither Beijing or Moscow have responded to news of the arrests, while a State Department spokesperson said the reports were “disturbing” and confirmed China was a “major enabler” of Russia’s war.

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The White House’s 104% tariffs on China took effect at midnight, wiping out initial gains and sending markets into decline for the fourth day straight.

Last night also saw the broader suite of ‘Liberation Day’ tariffs, some up to 50%, take effect.

Despite international and domestic calls for tariff relief, President Trump announced that further levies on pharmaceutical companies were coming.

Trump vs China

On Monday, President Trump threatened an additional 50% tariff on China if it did not reverse its retaliatory 34% tariff by April 9.

China was dealt a 34% tariff on their exports to the US last Friday, in addition to the pre-existing 20% tariffs imposed last month.

China has labelled these actions blackmail and has refused to back down. President Trump also promised no tariff relief until the US-China ‘trade deficit’ is balanced.

Vice President JD Vance said “borrowing money” and “buying goods” made by “Chinese peasants” was not a recipe for “economic prosperity”.

The Rally

On Monday, the White House said 50 countries had been in contact to negotiate a trade deal, and indicated they would prioritise negotiations with Japan and South Korea.

While investors initially saw the White House’s announcement as a good sign, confirmation that the 50% additional China tariff would proceed saw markets plunge for the fourth day in a row.

Pharmaceutical tariffs

Details are yet to be clarified, but “major” tariffs on pharmaceutical companies will be announced soon. The President said tariffs on pharmaceutical companies would encourage them to move manufacturing to the US.

I’ve got 2 minutes

President Trump says a new series of executive orders aimed at strengthening the coal industry will “reinvigorate” the struggling sector.

The orders designated coal a national security concern, cut several regulations, and reinstated prior policies restricting coal companies from prospecting and mining on federal land.

The order is a dramatic change from the energy policies of previous White House administrations over the past two decades, which slowed coal growth in favor of gas and emerging renewable energy.

Yesterday’s orders

Tuesday’s four executive orders aimed to buoy the coal industry.

The first order redesignated coal as a ‘critical mineral’. That means it is now deemed essential for defense purposes, which will expedite its mining and processing.

Regulations that previously prevented the discovery of coal on federal land were lifted, and now means federal land can be leased to coal companies.

Federal agencies have also been directed to rescind all anti-coal policies currently in operation.

Why?

Over the past two decades, market dynamics have led to the decline of coal.

Coal plants are expensive and inefficient, while alternatives like gas and renewables are cheaper and cleaner.

Across the Obama and Biden administrations, several key climate policies were introduced to disincentivize the production and sale of coal and encourage investment in alternate energy sources.

In his first term, President Trump introduced initiatives that would revive the coal industry.

When President Biden entered office in 2021, climate action was central to his agenda, and he pledged to end all US carbon emissions by 2050.

This included flagship Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regulations, which mandated that US coal plants capture and bury 90% of emissions or shut down by 2039.

Pro-coal executive orders

Since the start of President Trump’s second term, his administration has again sought to repeal past administrations' restrictions on coal via executive orders, including President Biden’s EPA and other pollution regulations.

Notably, the Trump administration has also reversed an EPA finding that greenhouse gases pose a major risk to public health.

“Beautiful, clean coal”

President Trump said the four executive orders would keep coal plants scheduled for retirement to keep producing electricity, arguing that coal was needed to match the unprecedented power demand from growth in data centers, AI facilities, and electric car plants.

Environmental groups have opposed the orders, arguing that coal produces more emissions than any other energy source.

One environmental group’s director, quoted by the New York Times, said, “Coal plants are old and dirty, uncompetitive and unreliable.”