Trump signs executive orders to revive U.S. coal industry

U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday signed a series of executive orders aimed at boosting the struggling coal industry, a reliable but polluting energy source that's long been in decline.

Under the four orders, Trump uses his emergency authority to allow some older coal-fired power plants set for retirement to keep producing electricity to meet rising U.S. power demand amid growth in data centers, artificial intelligence and electric cars.

Trump also directed federal agencies to identify coal resources on federal lands, lift barriers to coal mining and prioritize coal leasing on U.S. lands.

In a related action, Trump also signed a proclamation offering coal-fired power plants a two-year exemption from federal requirements to reduce emissions of toxic chemicals such as mercury, arsenic and benzene.

Trump's administration had offered power plants and other industrial polluters a chance for exemptions from rules imposed by the Environmental Protection Agency. The agency set up an electronic mailbox to allow regulated companies to request a presidential exemption under the Clean Air Act to a host of Biden-era rules.

Trump has long promised to boost what he calls "beautiful" coal to fire power plants and for other uses, but the industry has been in decline for decades.

"I call it beautiful, clean coal. I told my people, never use the word coal unless you put beautiful, clean before it," Trump said at a White House signing ceremony.

"Pound for pound, coal is the single most reliable, durable, secure and powerful form of energy," Trump said. "It's cheap, incredibly efficient, high density, and it's almost indestructible."

Trump's orders also direct Interior Secretary Doug Burgum to “acknowledge the end” of an Obama-era moratorium that paused coal leasing on federal lands and require federal agencies to rescind policies transitioning the nation away from coal production. And they seek to promote coal and coal technology exports, and accelerate development of coal technologies.

New York Governor Kathy Hochul and New Mexico Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham, co-chairs of the U.S. Climate Alliance, said Trump's order illegally attempts to usurp states' rights to act on climate.

Environmental groups said Trump's actions were more of the same tactics he tried during his first term in an unsuccessful bid to revive coal.

"What's next, a mandate that Americans must commute by horse and buggy?" asked Kit Kennedy, managing director for power at the Natural Resources Defense Council.

"Coal plants are old and dirty, uncompetitive and unreliable," Kennedy said, accusing Trump and his administration of remaining "stuck in the past, trying to make utility customers pay more for yesterday's energy."

Instead, she said, the U.S. should do all it can to build the power grid of the future, including tax credits and other support for renewable energy such as wind and solar power.

(Cover: A view of the Harrison Power Station, a coal-fired power plant using approximately 5 million tonnes of coal annually, in Haywood, West Virginia, U.S., March 10, 2025. /VCG)