This story was originally published by The Guardian and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration.
President Donald Trump is using wartime presidential authority to hand $700 million to coal-fired power plants in the U.S., the latest move by the president to bolster what he called “clean, beautiful coal,” despite it being the dirtiest of fossil fuels.
“Today, we’re taking historic action to bring down the price of energy and the cost of living for all Americans with the power of clean, beautiful coal,” he said at a press conference on Thursday.
Trump is using the Defense Production Act, a Cold War-era statute used to accelerate American industrial output in times of national need, to provide grants to more than a dozen existing coal plants across the U.S., including facilities capable of exporting coal.
“As a result of the $700 million investment that I’m announcing today, we will protect 14 coal plants and 42 coalmines, a tremendous number, and build two new coal plants and one massive new export terminal,” Trump said.
The funds will be used to bring a new coal export terminal online in Oakland, California, and to restart an existing facility in Maryland.
They will also keep online plants across 10 states: West Virginia, Kentucky, North Carolina, Indiana, Tennessee, Arkansas, Arizona, Oklahoma, North Dakota, and Wisconsin. Each of those 10 states voted for Trump, the president boasted on Thursday. “We won them all,” he said.
The two new coal plants will be in Alaska and West Virginia.
Trump has long been a champion of reviving the United States’ ailing coal industry. Thursday’s White House event featured supportive governors and lawmakers from coal-rich states such as Wyoming and West Virginia.
In the past year, the Trump administration has doled out hundreds of millions of dollars to the coal industry, signed orders forcing ratepayers to pay extra for aging plants to stay open, and dismantled environmental rules that limit toxins from coal leaching into Americans’ shared air and water.
The administration’s attempts to provide a cuddly rebranding to coal have even extended to creating a new mascot with giant eyes, called Coalie, and gushing social media posts that include an image of a lump of coal wearing sunglasses as if it were on the TV show Love Island.
“You’re not allowed to say ‘coal’ within the Trump administration unless it’s preceded by the words ‘clean, beautiful,’” Trump said on Thursday. “Complicates our life, but it’s good.”
Regardless of such terminology, coal is not clean. It is the most carbon-dense fossil fuel and therefore a leading cause of the climate crisis when burned. Coal also gives off tiny toxic particles that sicken miners and trigger widespread respiratory and heart health problems across the U.S. — research has estimated that as many as 460,000 deaths in the U.S. from 1999 to 2020 were attributable to air pollution from coal plants alone.
Environmental groups strongly criticized the administration’s latest aid for coal. “It is disgusting and reprehensible that the president of the United States is giving away our taxpayer dollars to deadly and expensive coal plants that will make Americans sicker and drive up electricity prices even more,” said Patrick Drupp, climate policy director of the Sierra Club.
“This handout betrays everything Donald Trump promised and only serves his big coal buddies who stroke his ego and hand him shiny trophies.”
Though Trump on Thursday claimed that his pro-coal actions will lower energy bills and that wind power is “the most expensive energy,” experts say coal plants are more expensive to build and operate than renewable power sources.
Trump’s attempts to revive the coal industry, while at the same time seeking to stymie the rapid growth of clean energy such as solar and wind, have so far floundered. The number of people working in coal has declined by more than 90 percent in the past century, with more people now working in Waffle Houses across the U.S. than in coal.
U.S. coal production is currently less than half of what it was in 2008, with coal recently declining as both a fuel for electricity and as an input for manufacturing materials such as iron and steel. Cheap, abundant gas has helped displace coal from power grids, with even cheaper renewable energy also now taking off in the U.S. despite the administration’s efforts to kill it off.
“What’s next, a taxpayer bailout to build new phone booths?” said Kit Kennedy, a senior climate campaigner at the Natural Resources Defense Council, of the new round of support for coal. “This is going to mean higher bills and dirtier air. What a waste.
“Propping up coal billionaires with taxpayer money is one more way for the Trump administration to put polluters first and put the rest of us at risk.”
The coal industry applauded Trump’s new order, arguing that ramped-up coal production will help the U.S. meet a historic spike in electricity demand caused by the surging artificial intelligence sector.
“Coal generation shields consumers from the impacts of volatile energy prices and supply challenges,” said Rich Nolan, chief executive of the National Mining Association.
The Environmental Protection Agency also announced plans to change an Obama-era emissions reductions plan that would have shuttered the Dave Johnston Unit 3 power plant in Wyoming.
Trump railed against Obama and Joe Biden for working to scale back coal power.
“Under four years of Sleepy Joe Biden and the radical left Democrats in Congress, not a single permit was approved for a new coal mining project, but in over one year of our administration, we’ve already approved 76 permits for clean, beautiful coal,” Trump said.
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