(Bloomberg) — President Donald Trump signed executive orders to 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.
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“Today, we’re taking historic action to help American workers, miners, families and consumers,” Trump said Tuesday at the White House as he moved to reinvigorate the coal industry.
“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, speaking in front of coal industry workers donning hard hats. “We’re going to put the miners back to work.”
While the text of the orders were not immediately available, Trump said they would unlock powers under the Defense Production Act to ramp up coal mining and he said he would offer guarantees to industry businesses to help protect their investments from political shifts in Washington.
“We are going to guarantee we have a strong business for many years to come,” Trump said. “We are going to give a guarantee that the business will not be terminated by the ups and downs.”
The president also said he would direct Energy Secretary Chris Wright to invest in next-generation coal technology and would ask the Department of Justice to identify and fight “unconstitutional” state and local regulations he said were putting coal miners out of work. Trump said he was also granting unspecified relief to 47 companies operating more than 60 coal plants across the country.
The orders emphasize that the US is back in the business of selling coal mining rights on federal land and orders the rock be designated as a critical mineral, according to a senior White House official. Other actions include accelerating the export of US coal and related technologies.
Trump cast the moves as essential to helping the US dominate the rapidly developing artificial intelligence sector, saying the country needed to ramp up electricity production to assure its position in the AI race.
“We need more than double the energy, the electricity we have,” Trump said, vowing to get “approvals very fast” for energy projects.
Trump also signed an order to strengthen the electric grid. That order directs the Energy Department to examine the nation’s power grids and wield its authority to maintain grid reliability, according to people familiar with the matter who detailed it on condition of anonymity, setting the stage for the government to potentially use emergency authority to sustain unprofitable coal and nuclear plants.
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.
Nevertheless, the effort 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 top administration officials have made clear boosting coal-fired power is a top priority, one they see as intertwined with national security and the US standing in a global competition to dominate the artificial intelligence industry.
Trump vowed to revive coal while campaigning for president last year, following through on a political priority from his first term. On Tuesday he assailed his predecessor, former President Joe Biden, saying his policies had stifled coal’s potential with environmental regulations, costing US jobs and sending energy prices soaring while China continued opening new plants.
Mining jobs have been in decline for years as the industry automated and as demand for the product diminished in the face of environmental regulations as well as competition from low-prices natural gas and renewables.
Coal advocates were cheering 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. “We urge electricity generators to work with the Administration, grid operators, and state officials to reverse their plans to retire more coal plants.”
Yet environmental advocates blasted the move, 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.”
Trump’s Environmental Protection Agency is already moving to revise a suite of regulations governing coal-fired power plants, including limits on mercury pollution as well as carbon dioxide. The EPA is also weighing exempting some power plants from specific air pollution controls.
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.
Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, who heads Trump’s energy dominance council, has cast coal-fired power as affordable and reliable, saying that makes it key to meeting demand from data centers, new factories and increased electrification in transportation and heating. NextEnergy Inc. has predicted US power demand will grow 55% over the next 20 years.
Renewable power advocates have argued that Trump’s bid for US energy dominance demands a wider array of options, especially given challenges securing critical components needed to produce electricity from coal and natural gas.
Trump, who last week ordered sweeping tariffs on US trading partners and is urging European allies to buy more American energy, sees coal as a valuable export too.
(Bloomberg Philanthropies’ work with the Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal campaign has helped retire over 70% of the nation’s coal plants since 2011.)
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