Trump eyes more coal power

President Trump is hoping to see more of the nation’s energy produced with coal, he said in a social media post Monday night.

Trump wrote he is “authorizing” his administration to “immediately begin producing Energy” with coal.

It’s not entirely clear what authorization he’s referring to, though when he first took office, Trump declared an energy emergency, unlocking additional powers to boost energy production.

He later said he would use that declaration to approve more energy for power-hungry artificial intelligence.

A White House official told The Hill that Trump’s post is one of many actions to come on coal but didn’t elaborate on what any forthcoming actions would be.

In the U.S., a significant amount of electricity is already produced using coal power; however, coal’s share of the energy market has declined in recent years amid a rise in gas and renewables.

As of 2022, about 9.8 percent of the country’s total energy consumption was coal.

In his latest post, Trump argued that other countries including China were able to “gain tremendous Economic advantage over us by opening up hundreds of all Coal Fire Power Plants.”

Over the past week, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum and Energy Secretary Chris Wright have said the administration was working on a plan to stop coal plant closures.

Burgum has floated using Trump’s emergency powers to stop coal plant closures.

Coal is a significant contributor to climate change and pollution, making it a controversial source of energy; burning it is more carbon-intensive than using even other fossil fuels such as oil and gas.

“Donald Trump is not concerned with Americans’ health or economic well-being. He is only concerned with helping out his billionaire buddies in the fossil fuel industry,” Patrick Drupp, director of climate policy at the Sierra Club, said in response.

Meanwhile, the coal industry has pushed back against regulations on its industry and called for actions to ease coal production on federal lands and more opportunities to access financing.

Over the past week, the Interior Department approved the expansion of a major coal mine, while the Environmental Protection Agency indicated it would roll back Biden-era regulations on planet-warming emissions and other pollution from coal plants.

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