On Wednesday, President Trump issued an executive order directing the Department of Defense to purchase electricity from coal-fired power plants. He also announced new funding to restart and upgrade coal plants in several states.
The executive order directs Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Energy Secretary Chris Wright to enter into long-term contracts with coal-fired plants to operate military installations and facilities. The order “will ensure that military installations and critical defense facilities are not disrupted, much-needed forces,” the White House said.
The Energy Department will also provide $175 million for six projects “to extend the useful life of coal-fired power plants” in rural and remote areas, including West Virginia, Ohio, North Carolina, Kentucky, and Ohio, the agency said.
Hundreds of coal plants have closed in the United States in recent years as cheaper and cleaner natural gas and renewables became more abundant. Coal is cheap to produce but is the dirtiest fossil fuel, emitting more air pollution, sulfur dioxide and mercury, and nearly twice as much planet-warming carbon dioxide as natural gas.
Trump announced the plans at a White House event where he also received the “Undisputed Champion of Coal” award from the Washington Coal Club, a pro-coal group.
The actions continue the administration’s efforts to turn back the clock on the transition to clean energy and reverse efforts to address climate change. By 2025, coal has fallen to about 17% of the nation’s electricity generation, from about 50% in 2000, according to the US Energy Information Administration.
The announcement comes a day before the administration’s expected rescinding of the Endangered Findings – the US government’s longstanding scientific assertion that carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases pose a threat to public health and well-being.
It also comes as Trump takes steps to block plans for electric vehicles and the development of renewable energy sources like wind and solar — including ongoing legal battles over wind projects on the East Coast and challenges to California’s mandate to set stricter tailpipe emissions standards.
During Wednesday’s event, Trump praised coal for keeping power running during recent winter storms when “solar and wind completely collapsed.”
“I’m not a fan of those crazy windmills that are all made in China,” Trump said.
But energy costs are rising across the US, and renewables represent the fastest, cheapest and cleanest resources available, said Julie McNamara, policy director of the climate and energy program at the nonprofit Union of Concerned Scientists. He described the president’s order as “an incredible waste of money, time and opportunity.”
“Forcing the use of increasingly unreliable and inefficient coal plants will risk blackouts and send electricity costs higher,” McNamara said. “Reckless lowering of health, safety and environmental standards will harm human health and the environment.” He said coal-producing communities need “real and robust solutions for change.”
Ted Kelly, director and lead adviser for US Clean Energy at the nonprofit Environmental Defense Fund, said the administration’s efforts are “focused on the profits of the coal industry, not the costs to American families and businesses.”
“This misuse of public funds will lead to more air pollution, asthma and higher electricity bills – all for old coal plants that barely work,” Kelly said. “At the same time, the Trump administration is blocking and canceling clean, low-cost energy options on the grid, causing costs to skyrocket.”
Kelly noted that coal costs are rising: 99% of coal plants cost more to operate than it would cost to replace them with renewable energy, according to an analysis from the nonpartisan think tank Energy Innovation. A separate analysis by consulting firm Grid Strategies found that forcing the continued operation of coal plants scheduled for retirement could cost taxpayers more than $3 billion a year.
Some representatives of the coal industry welcomed the new order.
“As demand grows and our lives become more electrified, America needs to generate more electricity, not less,” said Kayla Blackford, who works at the Bear Run Mine in Cougar, Ind., during Wednesday’s event. “For years, coal miners have felt the weight of policies that make our future uncertain. Last year this weight started.”
But even some in the industry questioned the management’s efforts. Last month, the owners of the Craig Generating Station in Colorado said the Department of Energy violated their constitutional rights when it ordered them to continue operating a coal-fired power plant they had planned to operate for more than a decade.
The agency has become an outlier, its owners say, and the cost of forcing it to stay online will ultimately fall on local taxpayers.
