President Donald Trump is preparing to use Cold War-era authorities to dole hundreds of millions of federal dollars to support coal-fired electricity as well as US exports of the fossil fuel.
Trump is expected to announce he’s delivering much of the funding for US coal plants and an American export terminal under the 1950 Defense Production Act during an Oval Office event Thursday, according to a White House official who asked for anonymity because the plan isn’t yet public.
Lawmakers and governors from coal-rich states, including Wyoming and West Virginia, have been invited to the White House for the session. The president’s public schedule for Thursday includes a 3 p.m. announcement “on Beautiful, Clean Coal.”
Trump’s planned initiative is set to include the distribution of $425 million in DPA funds to 13 existing coal plants and $185 million in separate Energy Department grants to help build two more in Alaska and West Virginia. Another $75 million also would be made available under the Defense Production Act for the proposed West Gateway export terminal in Oakland, California, opening a new avenue to ship potentially 12 million tons of coal from Wyoming, Montana and other states outside the western US.
Beneficiaries of the planned funding are set to include the long-planned Oakland Bulk and Oversized Terminal in California, as well as utilities Duke Energy Corp., Hallador Energy Co., Oklahoma Gas & Electric Co. and at least one subsidiary of American Electric Power Company Inc..
The planned funding marks the latest efforts by Trump to revive fortunes for coal mined in the US as well as electricity made from it. During his second term in the White House, he has relentlessly championed an American energy dominance agenda that’s rooted in producing, using and exporting more of the nation’s oil, gas and coal reserves.
Under Trump, the US Energy Department has issued emergency orders directing coal plants to keep producing power past planned closing dates, arguing the continued operations were necessary to buttress the reliability of the nation’s electric grid.
The Interior Department has also moved to open more federal land for coal leasing in North Dakota, Montana and Wyoming. And Trump has directed Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to enter into agreements to purchase electricity from coal plants to power military operations.
Environmentalists who’ve criticized the Trump administration moves insist the US is wrongly using taxpayer dollars to prolong the country’s reliance on fossil fuels that generate planet-warming pollution and drive climate change — instead of supporting emission-free alternatives they say are more cost effective.
Conservationists also have fought nearly two decades of plans for an export terminal in California, arguing it would sustain the world’s demand for fossil fuels while also polluting local communities, as coal dust filters off uncovered rail cars that would supply the site.
“What’s next — a taxpayer bailout to build new phone booths?” asked Kit Kennedy, managing director for power at the Natural Resources Defense Council. “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 best thing for the air, the climate and our utility bills is to let these plants retire peacefully.”
Trump frequently extols “clean, beautiful coal,” and he’s argued that electricity from coal is necessary to feed the country’s emerging artificial intelligence sector and its growing demand for energy-hungry computing power. Interior Secretary Doug Burgum has cast winning the AI race as a national security imperative and coal power as an essential ingredient.
Coal plants set to receive $425 million in Defense Production Act funding include sites in West Virginia, Kentucky, North Carolina, Indiana, Tennessee, Arkansas, Arizona, Oklahoma, North Dakota and Wisconsin, the White House official said. Although full details of the planned funding weren’t immediately available, the money could be used to support upgrades at the sites, the official added.
Trump has moved more aggressively to seize authorities under the Defense Production Act, a law initially used by President Harry Truman to increase steel production during the Korean War. The statute previously has been invoked to accelerate production of face masks during the coronavirus pandemic, support US solar power deployment and expand supplies of baby formula during a national shortage. But Trump has increasingly used the law to support domestic energy priorities, including restarting oil production off California’s coast.
Trump also is set to announce the award of an additional $185 million in Energy Department grant funding to help build the two coal plants in Alaska and West Virginia, as well as restart the AES Warrior Run generating station near Cumberland, Maryland. The potential new plants — which could become the first of their kind built in the US since 2013 — are being pursued by Terra Energy Center Corp. in Alaska and TerraPurus Inc. in Mount Storm, West Virginia, the White House official said.
Under the grants, the companies would put up additional matching funds, bringing total planned spending to $386 million.
The planned government funding is seen helping drive production of coal-fired electricity, thereby increasing demand for coal that had declined for years as utilities shifted toward cheaper natural gas and renewables. Although coal once accounted for more than half of US electricity generation, that share fell to about 17% last year. (By Jennifer A. Dlouhy)
