Is Trump Tampering With the Natural Progress of Civilization? – TheStreet.com

OPINION/ANALYSIS

Real Money asked me to outline the winners and losers of President Trump's decision to abandon the Paris climate accords.

The answer here is pretty easy and obvious: The winners will be a few coal companies, most likely Arch Coal (ARCH) , Peabody Energy (BTU) and Cloud Peak Energy (CLD) , all three of whom advised against leaving -- and their gains will more than likely only be short and temporary.

The losers are virtually everyone else.

I don't say that merely from an environmental point of view, but let's look at the very long term first. We have an ongoing progression of energy sourcing that dates back to the 1800s, when the major energy source for the growing nation was wood-based. As the Industrial Revolution gained steam in the 1850s, coal overtook wood in powering our nation. The progression continued in the early 1900s with the advent of fossil fuels, including natural gas and oil refining, with crude oil remaining the larger component in transportation and electricity generation.

Natural gas has become an ever more important component of core energy production, and the progression is naturally continuing toward natural gas and away from crude oil. Ultimately, alternative energy sources are the next step and will at some point become the dominant form of energy.

We may argue about the timing and speed of this progression, but the outcome is universally agreed upon -- even among oil and coal companies.

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Is Trump Tampering With the Natural Progress of Civilization? - TheStreet.com