On Monday, the Trump administration laid out a unified strategy designed to reinvigorate the American coal industry, a sector that remains the world’s leading contributor to climate change.
Since 2005, the use of coal in the United States has seen a dramatic decline, largely supplanted by more economical and cleaner alternatives such as natural gas, wind, and solar power.
However, through a series of actions intended to bolster coal’s economic viability, the Interior Department announced plans to open 13.1 million acres of federal land for coal mining and reduce the royalty fees for extraction. Concurrently, the Energy Department committed $625 million to modernize and extend the operational lifespan of existing coal-fired power plants, many of which have been rapidly closing.
Adding to these efforts, the Environmental Protection Agency declared its intention to dismantle numerous regulations enacted by the Biden administration, which aimed to control carbon dioxide, mercury, and other pollutants from coal facilities. The agency also signaled it would revise a wastewater pollution regulation for power plants, a rule deemed excessively costly by the industry.
In a scene that has become characteristic, administration officials, flanked by miners in hard hats at the Interior Department, echoed President Trump’s preferred descriptor for coal: ‘Clean, beautiful coal.’
These announcements followed just days after Mr. Trump’s address to the United Nations General Assembly, where he stated that the United States was ready to supply ‘abundant, affordable energy’—including liquefied natural gas, oil, and coal—to any nation in need. President Trump has been a consistent champion of the coal industry since his 2016 campaign, often appearing alongside coal miners.
Once responsible for nearly half of America’s electricity, coal plants generated only 16 percent last year. Hundreds of these plants have been retired since the mid-2000s as utilities transitioned to natural gas and renewables. Stringent air and water pollution regulations have also made coal combustion more expensive. Furthermore, coal mining, notorious for its links to severe air and water contamination and black lung disease, has faced increasing federal oversight.
Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, along with EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin, portrayed the regulations as an ‘ideological war on coal.’ Energy Secretary Chris Wright further remarked on Fox that coal was ‘out of fashion with the chardonnay set in San Francisco, Boulder, Colo., and New York City,’ highlighting a cultural divide.
Notably, the term ‘climate change’ was absent from the hour-long coal event. Instead, officials framed coal as an economic imperative. ‘In addition to to drill, baby, drill, we need to mine, baby, mine,’ Burgum declared.
The extent to which the Trump administration can genuinely revive the industry remains uncertain. Recent years have seen a surge in electricity demand, driven by the expanding fields of artificial intelligence and data centers. This has prompted utilities to keep over 50 coal-burning units operational beyond their initial retirement dates, according to America’s Power, an industry trade group. Should the Trump administration succeed in easing pollution controls on coal power, more plants could continue to operate longer or increase their output.
The administration has already taken extraordinary measures to support coal plants. In June, the Energy Department issued an emergency order preventing a Michigan coal plant from closing as scheduled, a move made without requests from either the grid operator or the local utility. The financial burden of this extension is expected to fall upon consumers.
Wright has suggested that similar orders might be forthcoming. Despite these interventions, over 100 plants are still slated for retirement by the end of Mr. Trump’s term.
‘I think this administration’s policy is going to be to stop the closure of coal plants, most of them cooperatively working with utilities,’ Wright stated in a recent interview at The New York Times’s Climate Forward event.
During Monday’s announcement, Wells Griffith, the under secretary for energy, referred to a recent Energy Department study claiming that America’s grid faced an elevated risk of blackouts if too many coal plants were decommissioned. This study has drawn criticism from clean-energy organizations and several Democratic-led states, who argue it is overly pessimistic about the capacity of rapidly developing sources like wind, solar, batteries, and natural gas to strengthen the national power system.
Holly Bender, chief program officer at the environmental group Sierra Club, warned that the administration’s actions would worsen air and water pollution and inflate electricity costs. ‘The Trump administration’s reckless actions announced today will hurt the American people, all to prop up the aging and outdated coal industry,’ she asserted.
While advocating for fossil fuels, the administration has also taken measures to curb the expansion of wind and solar power nationwide, criticizing them as unreliable and overly dependent on weather conditions.
Globally, coal power continues to grow, particularly in China and other nations. Last year, global coal demand hit a new record high, as reported by the International Energy Agency, although the agency anticipates a plateau in demand in the coming years.
Burgum cited this global trend as justification for U.S. investment in coal. ‘China is absolutely the number one user of coal and they are aggressively adding more power,’ he noted, adding, ‘Our nation can lead in technology but if we don’t lead in electrical production, we’re going to lose the A.I. arms race.’
Despite its increased coal consumption, China has also emerged as a global leader in wind and solar development. Just last week, the country announced its first-ever plans to begin reducing planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions by 2035.