Trump Digs Coal, But is it Too Late to Arrest its Decline?

Greg Priddy

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President Trump has long been a supporter of the coal industry, most recently touting his support for coal, among other things, at the “Energy and Innovation Summit” event he held in Pittsburgh on July 15. Trump later reposted on Truth Social an item from his Secretary of Energy, Chris Wright, stating, 

“President Trump has TRANSFORMED the American energy landscape. You’re going to see a lot more of big, beautiful, clean coal!” So will we? Probably not. Trump’s recent pro-coal policy moves may slow coal’s long decline, but they almost certainly will not result in any net growth of US coal production.

The recently announced policy changes are substantial, both from the One Big Beautiful Bill Act and regulatory changes Trump has the authority to do on his own. The latter will probably have more of an impact. In the bill, there is a mandate for the Department of the Interior to make more land available for coal leases, 

and it tags metallurgical coal as a “critical mineral” eligible for a production tax credit. The Trump administration also had acted in March to lift some requirements on power plant pollutant emissions —both carbon dioxide and other pollutants — without which we would have seen the shutdown of most of the remaining coal-fired US generators within the next decade.

The Trump administration also made a direct intervention in the market by issuing an executive order in April, which, in effect, mandates that the Department of Energy (DOE) issue orders to keep some coal-fired power plants slated for closure in the near future in operation.

A related study by the US Department of Energy, which has received much criticism, argued that the United States faces major challenges to the reliability of the electric grid unless the federal government intervenes to prevent coal-burning power plant closures. In some cases, this has abruptly undermined plans by the plants’ operators to retire them, necessitating the imposition of substantial additional costs to keep them in operation.