Coal-burning plants generate less than 20% of US electricity, a drop from 50% in 2000, according to the Energy Information Administration, as fracking and other drilling techniques have hiked production of natural gas. Growth in solar and wind power has also cut coal use.
“We’re going to put the miners back to work,“ Trump said about a workforce that has sunk to about 40,000 from 70,000 ten years ago.
US electricity demand is rising for the first time in two decades on growth in power-hungry data centers for artificial intelligence, electric vehicles, and cryptocurrencies.
They also direct Energy Secretary Chris Wright to determine whether coal used in steel production is a “critical mineral.” Allowing that classification, typically reserved for minerals needed for high-tech defense systems, for metallurgical coal could set the table for use of emergency powers to raise production.
After Trump signed the orders, Wright's department made $200 billion in financing available for its loan programs office including for new coal technologies.
The orders direct Interior Secretary Doug Burgum to acknowledge the end of a moratorium that paused new coal leasing, which allows private companies to buy the right to extract coal, on federal lands, and to prioritize the leasing.
Still, it is uncertain what demand there is for any greater US coal output, with hundreds of domestic coal-burning plants having closed this decade on cheaper fuels and concerns about future regulations even if Trump's administration dismantles current ones.
'STUCK IN THE PAST'
In his first administration, Trump tried to prop up coal by having his then energy secretary direct federal energy regulators to subsidize coal plants for their contribution in making power grids more reliable and resilient. The regulators rejected the plan in 2018.
Environmental groups slammed Trump’s coal plan. “Coal plants are old and dirty, uncompetitive and unreliable,“ said Kit Kennedy, managing director for Power at the Natural Resources Defense Council.
“The Trump administration is stuck in the past, trying to make utility customers pay more for yesterday’s energy. Instead, it should be doing all it can to build the electricity grid of the future.”
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