Trump Signs Orders to Expand Coal Power, Invoking AI Boom (1)

President Donald Trump signed a raft of measures he boasted would expand the mining and use of coal inside the US, a bid to power the boom in energy-hungry data centers and revive a flagging US fossil fuel industry.

Trump said he was “taking historic action to help American workers, miners, families and consumers,” as he set in motion wide-ranging initiatives to promote electricity made from coal, including with legal strikes targeting state regulations and policies that deter the fossil fuel’s use.

“All those plants that have been closed are going to be opened if they’re modern enough, or they’ll be ripped down and brand new ones will be built,” Trump said in front of executives, workers and lawmakers gathered at the White House on Tuesday. “We’re going to put the miners back to work.”

Taken together, the measures represent a sweeping attempt to ensure coal remains part of the US electricity mix, despite its higher greenhouse gas emissions and frequently greater cost when compared to natural gas or solar power.

Donald Trump

Photographer: Al Drago/Bloomberg

The effort also underscores Trump’s commitment to tapping America’s coal resources as a source of both electricity to run data centers and heat to forge steel. The president and administration officials have made clear boosting coal-fired power is a priority, one they see as intertwined with national security and the US standing in a global competition to dominate the artificial intelligence industry.

Even so, it’s unclear whether the president’s new initiatives will be enough to dramatically shift the domestic landscape for coal, which has declined for years
in the face of competition from low-cost natural gas and renewable power as well as environmental regulations and climate change concerns. It’s also not certain technology companies that have embraced emission-free nuclear and renewable energy will be eager to power their data centers with coal.

Trump also said the US government would offer guarantees to help protect coal investments from political shifts in Washington. It was not immediately clear how Trump would provide that assurance.

“We are going to give a guarantee that the business will not be terminated by the ups and downs of the world of politics,” Trump said.

Under an executive order, Trump directed Energy Secretary Chris Wright to aid the development of coal technologies, including more ways to put its byproducts to use in batteries, graphite and building materials.

The order also mandates efforts to accelerate the export of US coal and related technologies; designate the fossil fuel as a critical mineral; and move to lower the royalty rates charged for extracting it from federal land.

The president also moved to waive coal plants across the country from mandates to control mercury pollution and other pollutants, under an exemption process set in motion by the Environmental Protection Agency last month. Trump said he was granting the two-year waivers to 47 companies operating more than 60 coal plants across the country, effectively allowing them to comply with less-stringent requirements.

Read More: Trump Mounts Sweeping Attack on Pollution and Climate Rules

Trump also signed a directive setting the stage for the federal government to potentially use emergency authority to keep unprofitable coal and nuclear plants operating. The president’s order calls on the Energy Department to examine the nation’s grids and use “all mechanisms available under applicable law” to keep critical electric generation resources operating within at-risk regions.

Trump simultaneously launched a potentially wide-ranging legal broadside against state and local policies he cast as “unconstitutional” measures putting coal miners out of work. He requested Attorney General Pam Bondi move swiftly to stop the enforcement of state laws and other civil actions that get in the way of domestic energy resources and are deemed to be illegal. The order singles out state laws “purporting to address ‘climate change,’” including carbon taxes and other measures taking aim at the greenhouse gases that drive global warming.

Trump cast the moves as essential to helping the US dominate the AI sector, saying the country needed to ramp up electricity production.

“We need more than double the energy, the electricity, we have,” Trump said.

Mining jobs have been in decline for years as the industry automated and as demand for the product diminished.

The Mammoth Coal Processing Plant in London, West Virginia, U.S., on Friday, Feb. 11, 2022.

Photographer: Dane Rhys/Bloomberg

Coal advocates cheered the president’s action.

“Today’s executive order recognizes that the nation’s coal fleet and its supply chain are essential to maintaining a healthy and secure electricity supply, which is the backbone of our economy,” said Michelle Bloodworth, president of America’s Power, a trade group representing coal miners and coal-fired utilities.

Environmental advocates blasted the initiative, calling it a misguided attempt to keep the US reliant on a dirty, more expensive source of power, instead of driving American dominance in emission-free renewables.

“What’s next, a mandate that Americans must commute by horse and buggy?” said Kit Kennedy, a managing director at the Natural Resources Defense Council.

“Coal plants are old and dirty, uncompetitive and unreliable,” Kennedy said. “A cleaner electric grid can also be more nimble and more reliable than one based primarily on fossil fuels.”

Coal accounts for about 15% of power generation in the US today, down from more than half in 2000, according to the US Energy Information Administration. Since 2000, about 770 individual coal-fired units have shuttered, according to data from Global Energy Monitor, with more set to close.

(Bloomberg Philanthropies’ work with the Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal campaign has helped retire over 70% of the nation’s coal plants since 2011.)

(Updates with additional details on orders throughout)

To contact the reporters on this story:
Ari Natter in Washington at anatter5@bloomberg.net;
Jennifer A. Dlouhy in Washington at jdlouhy1@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story:
Justin Sink at jsink1@bloomberg.net

Meghashyam Mali, Laura Davison

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