Trump directs hundreds of millions of dollars to support coal using emergency powers
By Timothy Gardner and Jarrett Renshaw
WASHINGTON, June 4 (Reuters) – President Donald Trump said on Thursday he was directing hundreds of millions of dollars to support U.S. coal plants and send the carbon-intensive fuel to Asia, with most of the funds coming from Cold War-era emergency powers.
Trump invoked the “Defense Production Act,” a 1950 law that gives presidents broad authority over industries deemed critical to national security, to fund $425 million for upgrades to 13 coal-fired power plants and $75 million to support the proposed West Gateway coal export terminal in Oakland, California.
The Department of Energy also said it will supplement previously announced funding of up to $350 million to help develop four coal plant projects, including new power plants in Alaska and West Virginia.
The Trump administration has framed energy policy as a national security issue to power AI data centers and reduce dependence on other countries.
At an event in the Oval Office, Trump, flanked by Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, Energy Secretary Chris Wright and Republican governors Mark Gordon of Wyoming and Patrick Morrisey of West Virginia, said “clean, beautiful coal” would help lower the cost of living for all Americans.
Gordon, who recently visited Japan and Taiwan, said leaders there are hungry for coal from Wyoming to support their own AI efforts. Gordon said opening the California port is absolutely essential to the lifeblood of our state, the largest coal-producing state in the United States.
POLLUTION CONCERNS
The plan has been condemned by environmental advocates who say particulate emissions from coal are linked to health problems, including heart and lung diseases, that shorten lives and add medical bills to Americans.
Patrick Drupp, the Sierra Club’s climate policy director, called it a taxpayer-funded subsidy for a polluting industry and said the group would fight the initiative in the courts.
“It is disgusting and reprehensible that the president of the United States is giving our taxpayers’ money to pay for deadly and expensive coal plants,” Drupp said.
Rich Nolan, CEO of the National Mining Association, said the financing will strengthen production of a fuel source that helps protect consumers from fluctuations in energy prices while supporting growing demand for electricity.
“The administration supports this strategy with decisive action domestically to ensure improvements to existing energy assets and at our ports to ensure U.S. coal can meet the world’s needs,” Nolan said. he said.
Coal, which accounted for more than half of U.S. electricity generation in 1990, now produces less than a fifth as utilities turn to cheaper natural gas and renewable energy sources. Despite rolling back environmental regulations on the industry, Trump has failed to boost the ranks of coal miners. St. The number of coal miners working in the U.S. fell from about 51,500 in 2017 to about 39,800 last year, according to the St. Louis Fed.
(Reporting by Jarrett Renshaw, Editing by Rod Nickel)
