The Trump administration on Monday unveiled a sweeping set of measures to keep coal plants online and expand mining, announcing $625 million in Department of Energy (DOE) funding alongside regulatory rollbacks and a massive opening of federal land for leasing. Officials framed the moves as vital for economic growth and rising electricity needs, while environmental and public health groups said the policies amount to a costly bailout that will force Americans to pay more for dirtier power.
The DOE announced a $625 million package “to expand and reinvigorate America’s coal industry,” just days after reports that department staff had been directed not to use the term “climate change.” Energy Secretary Chris Wright said that “beautiful, clean coal will be essential to powering America’s re-industrialization and winning the AI race,” citing growing energy demand from data centers.
According to the DOE, the funds will include $350 million for recommissioning and retrofitting coal plants, $175 million for projects in rural communities, $50 million for wastewater management systems to extend plant lifelines, $25 million for dual firing retrofits, and $25 million for gas co-firing systems.
“Rather than investing in affordable and clean energy, Chris Wright is taking taxpayers’ hard-earned dollars and giving it to wealthy executives in the coal industry,” said Laurie Williams, director of the Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal campaign. “This is a transparent wealth transfer from everyday Americans, who are already making tough decisions at the kitchen table, to the millionaires that run the fossil fuel industry.”
Williams added: “If Chris Wright, or anyone in Donald Trump’s administration, truly cared about bringing down the cost of electricity, they would be investing in affordable clean energy instead of taking a sledgehammer to the progress our country has made. By handing out millions to the coal industry, the Trump administration is divesting from Americans’ health, from our environment, and from our path forward to a cleaner, healthier future.”
The Interior Department simultaneously announced it would open 13.1 million acres of federal land for coal leasing—triple the benchmarks set by the One Big Beautiful Bill Act passed this summer. Secretary Doug Burgum echoed Trump’s campaign slogans, declaring: “In addition to to drill, baby drill, we need to mine, baby, mine.”
EPA officials confirmed that dozens of regulations put in place under the Biden administration to curb carbon dioxide, mercury, and wastewater pollution from coal plants would be repealed or revised. Burgum and other officials described the actions as necessary to counter what they called an “ideological war on coal.”
Public health and climate groups warned the public will bear the consequences. “President Trump’s coal giveaway is exactly the wrong direction for the country,” said David Arkush, director of Public Citizen’s climate program. “It is clear that solar, wind, and battery storage will provide nearly all affordable, clean energy in the near future, and expensive, dirty coal will be a relic of the past.”
“Trump’s effort to block renewables and keep fossil fuels on life support only hurts Americans,” Arkush continued. “It forces us to pay for unduly expensive energy and wasteful corporate subsidies, harms our health by polluting our air and water, and neglects to build up domestic manufacturing and supply chains for the energy technologies of the future while China races ahead.” He added: “Other forms of energy are simply far less expensive than coal—as well as cleaner, cheaper, and safer for a climate habitable for humans. This bailout is nothing more than a wealth transfer from the American people to Trump’s billionaire friends sitting atop a failing industry.”
Camden Weber, a climate and energy policy specialist at the Center for Biological Diversity, said the administration’s approach prioritizes wealthy allies over the public interest. “The guy with a golden, life-size statue of himself holding a bitcoin outside the U.S. Capitol is prioritizing data center profits over Americans’ access to clean air, water, and affordable energy? Shocker,” Weber said.
“Trump’s order fabricates yet another ‘energy emergency’ to keep filthy coal plants online and fueling massive, energy-sucking data centers,” she added. “He and his ultra-rich friends will cash in while the public and our planet pay the price. The damage to our climate will be immense and unforgivable.”
Critics also noted the costs will fall on ratepayers. In June, DOE issued an emergency order to prevent a Michigan coal plant from closing as scheduled, even though neither the grid operator nor the utility requested it. Officials acknowledged the costs of the extension are “expected to fall on consumers.” Energy Secretary Wright has hinted that more such orders could follow, and more than 100 coal plants have already announced plans to retire by the end of Trump’s term.
“Expanding mining and spending taxpayer money on burning coal, while rolling back vital health protections, will only exacerbate the deadly pollution and rising electricity bills that communities are facing across the country,” said Jill Tauber, vice president of litigation for climate and energy at Earthjustice. “Clean energy and other climate solutions are driving significant growth in our economy, but this administration is choosing to throw its weight behind fossil fuel industries and stymie progress. Earthjustice will continue to take the administration to court to oppose unlawful actions to prop up coal at the expense of the American people.”
Coal once supplied nearly half of U.S. electricity but accounted for just 16 percent last year, with hundreds of plants retired since the mid-2000s. Still, growing demand from artificial intelligence and data centers has led utilities to delay closure dates for more than 50 coal units, according to the trade group America’s Power. Trump officials argue that keeping those plants running is essential for grid stability, citing a DOE study that warned of blackout risks if too many retire. Clean energy groups and Democratic-led states say the study downplays the role of wind, solar, batteries, and gas in strengthening the grid.
At the announcement event, miners in hard hats stood behind officials as Trump’s team repeated the phrase he popularized: “Clean, beautiful coal.”
COMMENTS