President Donald Trump is tapping Cold War-era authority to funnel $700 million in grants to coal-fired power plants across the country, marking his most sweeping direct subsidy to an industry he has championed despite widespread evidence of its health and environmental costs.
The move relies on the Defense Production Act, a statute historically used to mobilize industrial capacity during national emergencies. Trump's administration is channeling the funds to more than a dozen existing coal facilities, some capable of exporting their output internationally.
The latest intervention caps a year of aggressive support for coal. Beyond direct grants, Trump has signed orders forcing electricity ratepayers to cover costs for aging plants and rolled back environmental protections limiting toxic emissions from coal combustion.
The president has long framed coal as essential to American energy independence and prosperity. At a White House event announcing the grants, he was flanked by governors and lawmakers from coal-dependent states including Wyoming and West Virginia. Trump has even attempted a public relations overhaul, instructing staff to avoid using the word "coal" in favor of "clean, beautiful coal" and commissioning marketing materials featuring a coal mascot called Coalie.
Coal, however, remains the dirtiest fossil fuel by carbon density and a major driver of climate change when burned. The mineral also releases particulates linked to respiratory and cardiovascular disease. Between 1999 and 2020, research estimates air pollution from coal plants contributed to roughly 460,000 deaths in the United States.
Environmental advocates swiftly condemned the subsidy as wasteful and harmful. Patrick Drupp, climate policy director at the Sierra Club, called the spending "disgusting and reprehensible," arguing it enriches coal companies while burdening ordinary Americans with higher electricity bills and health risks.
Kit Kennedy, senior climate campaigner at the Natural Resources Defense Council, questioned the logic of propping up an industry in decline. "What's next, a taxpayer bailout to build new phone booths?" he said, noting that the infusion will raise costs for consumers while dirtying the air.
Trump's coal revival strategy has struggled to reverse decades of economic erosion. Coal employment has plummeted over 90 percent in a century. The US now has more workers at Waffle House locations than in coal mines. Production has fallen below half 2008 levels as cheaper natural gas and increasingly affordable renewables displaced coal from power grids.
The coal industry justified the new support as necessary to meet surging electricity demand from artificial intelligence data centers. Rich Nolan, chief executive of the National Mining Association, argued that coal generation protects consumers from volatile energy prices and positioned the industry as part of a broader energy strategy to address AI-driven power needs alongside geopolitical tensions.
Author James Rodriguez: "This is corporate welfare dressed up as patriotism, and it won't save an industry that markets and physics have already made obsolete."
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