The President issues executive action designed to revive the industrial mainstay of the 19th century and promote the economy of the 21st century.
President Donald Trump signed four executive orders designed to keep coal-fired power plants operating this week, following a pledge to boost the $28 billion coal mining industry decline, encouraging more mining to drive electricity demand.
“This is a very important day for me, because we’re getting back despite the fact that it’s the best, certainly the best, in terms of power, true power,” Trump said on a stage shared with several helmet coal miners on Tuesday.
The actions of these predecessors eliminated more than 200 rules, regulations and executive orders issued under the Biden administration. They enabled four coal-related orders issued Tuesday, granting regulatory relief to 47 businesses operating 66 power plants, “making them available for almost future use for coal production,” Trump said.
“We are reducing unnecessary regulations targeting beautiful, clean coal,” the president said. “We will rapidly promote coal mining leases on federal lands…and we will streamline permits. We will end government biases on coal.”
Trump personally greeted nine senators and 12 home representatives, and after all Republicans, mostly from the state of energy production, he granted permission to use the Defense Production Act under the National Energy Emergency “to disrupt coal in America.”
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The president also said that his administration would “do something very different. This was my idea from about 15 minutes before I came here. We are “trying to give them the assurance that it will not be terminated by the floating of the hellish world.”
Under the order, coal is defined as a “mineral” and not as a “non-renewable fossil fuel.” The designation will coalize mineral profits under the March executive order to increase US mineral production.
The order called on federal agencies to identify coal resources on federal land, lift coal mine barriers, prioritize coal leases on US land, and require Interior Secretary Doug Burgham to “accept the end” of Obama-era moratoriums that suspended coal leases on federal land.
The order promotes the reliability of the grid by directing all federal agencies to “end all discriminatory policies against the coal industry” and ensuring that grid policies are not based on progressive policies that “discriminate against safe power sources such as coal and other fossil fuels.”
Under the order, the Department of Justice will be directed to “actively pursue and investigate” policies of anti-legal fuel states that are deemed illegal or unconstitutional, but federal agencies must promote coal and accelerate the development of coal technology.
Coal-fired electricity generation fell by more than 2% in 2024, continuing to decline for decades. According to the report, coal generated 50% of the country’s electricity in 2005, but in 2024 it was only 14%.
Coal miners pass mining equipment at SUFCO coal mine 30 miles east of Salina, Utah on May 28, 2014. George Frey/Getty Images
Coal retirement has stopped
As of March 2024, the US Bureau of Labor Statistics said the US coal mining industry had employing more than 33,000 people, more than half in June 2022.
In March, EPA administrator Lee Zeldin announced that he was considering both “power plant rules” under the president’s energy emergency declaration with implicit intention to continue to operate them.
Many utilities have already been searching for ways to make coal-fired plants work.
U.S. electricity CEO Michelle Bradworth said at a policy summit in Washington in February that since 2022, utilities in 19 states have been delaying the retirement of around 50 coal-fired power plants due to “clogged interconnection queues” due to increased natural gas connections and electricity demand.
In October 2024, Wolverine reopened Utah’s fossil rock mines, which had been closed for 23 years. There are no hold-up permits to open new coal mines or build new coal-fired power plants, but the utility is considering an extension agreement with a coal provider.
Among these projects are licenses related to four coal mining operations. Two are Pennsylvania, one in West Virginia and the other in Alabama.
The Bureau of Land Management recently approved a waiver of Southeast Montana Coal Mine from the “SOOT Standards” and expanded its operations. On April 2nd, the bureau agreed to extend its operating license from 2031 to 2045 to North Dakota’s free mine, the country’s largest lignite coal mine.
“Already under our leadership, the Department of Interior has approved the expansion of Montana’s Spring Creek mine, supporting 280 coal mining jobs and unleashing more than 40 million tonnes of coal,” Trump said. “And then we’ll come to Wyoming, Alabama, Utah, North Dakota and many other states (including West Virginia).”
Leaders of coal producers celebrated Trump’s energy agenda.
“President Trump’s policies to expand coal use and utilize natural gas resources will drive a long-lasting economic boom,” West Virginia Gov. Patrick Morrissey told the Epoch Times at the White House. “We really have the opportunity to soar and use it to compete more effectively with the Chinese.”
One of the coal industry workers who attended the event thanked the president for signing the executive order.
“For too long, we were considered villains. We were all considered family members,” Anthony Sable, assistant mineforeman at Harvey Coal Mine, told the Epoch Times.
“And to have your values as a person and what you are doing, and what it means for the local economy, as well as the nation and national security, and having a president that means helping America arrive in the golden age is truly an in vitro experience.”
Travis Gilmore contributed to this report.
