Trump plans $700 million to build coal plants, export site

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Source: Bloomberg, via mining.com

Trump plans $700 million to build coal plants, export site

Bloomberg News | June 3, 2026 | 5:37 pm Energy USA Coal


Oakland’s former Army Base. Credit: City of Oakland

President Donald Trump is preparing to use Cold War-era authorities to dole hundreds of millions of federal dollars to support coal-fired electricity as well as US exports of the fossil fuel. ... Trump is expected to announce he’s delivering much of the funding for US coal plants and an American export terminal under the 1950 Defense Production Act during an Oval Office event Thursday, according to a White House official who asked for anonymity because the plan isn’t yet public. ... Lawmakers and governors from coal-rich states, including Wyoming and West Virginia, have been invited to the White House for the session. The president’s public schedule for Thursday includes a 3 p.m. announcement “on Beautiful, Clean Coal.”

Trump’s planned initiative is set to include the distribution of $425 million in DPA funds to 13 existing coal plants and $185 million in separate Energy Department grants to help build two more in Alaska and West Virginia. Another $75 million also would be made available under the Defense Production Act for the proposed West Gateway export terminal in Oakland, California, opening a new avenue to ship potentially 12 million tons of coal from Wyoming, Montana and other states outside the western US. ... Beneficiaries of the planned funding are set to include the long-planned Oakland Bulk and Oversized Terminal in California, as well as utilities Duke Energy Corp., Hallador Energy Co., Oklahoma Gas & Electric Co. and at least one subsidiary of American Electric Power Company Inc..

The planned funding marks the latest efforts by Trump to revive fortunes for coal mined in the US as well as electricity made from it. During his second term in the White House, he has relentlessly championed an American energy dominance agenda that’s rooted in producing, using and exporting more of the nation’s oil, gas and coal reserves.

Under Trump, the US Energy Department has issued emergency orders directing coal plants to keep producing power past planned closing dates, arguing the continued operations were necessary to buttress the reliability of the nation’s electric grid. ... The Interior Department has also moved to open more federal land for coal leasing in North Dakota, Montana and Wyoming. And Trump has directed Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to enter into agreements to purchase electricity from coal plants to power military operations.

{snip}

“What’s next — a taxpayer bailout to build new phone booths?” asked Kit Kennedy, managing director for power at the Natural Resources Defense Council. “Propping up coal billionaires with taxpayer money is one more way for the Trump administration to put polluters first and put the rest of us at risk. The best thing for the air, the climate and our utility bills is to let these plants retire peacefully.”

{snip}

(By Jennifer A. Dlouhy)

Read more: https://www.mining.com/web/trump-plans-700-million-to-build-coal-plants-export-site/

---

https://www.reuters.com/legal/litigation/trump-plans-700-million-new-coal-support-white-house-official-says-2026-06-04/

Trump plans $700 million in new coal support, White House official says

By Jacob Bogage and Jarrett Renshaw
June 3, 2026 9:13 PM EDT Updated 4 hours ago


Workers transport and organise mounds of coal on a hilltop near an Arch Coal facility in Beckley, West Virginia, U.S., April 11, 2025. REUTERS/Adrees Latif/File Photo

Summary
• Trump to invoke Defense Production Act for coal industry support
• Plan aims to upgrade coal plants, build export terminal, match corporate funds for new ​facilities
• Coal use declining as producers shift to natural gas, renewables amid ‌climate concerns

WASHINGTON, June 3 (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump is planning to use Cold War-era national defense powers to send nearly $700 million to support ​coal facilities, according to a White House official.

Trump could announce as ​soon as Thursday that he will invoke the Defense Production ⁠Act, the 1950 law granting presidents wide authority over national security-related industries, ​to upgrade more than a dozen coal power plants, build a massive ​West Coast coal export terminal and match corporate funds to build new power plants, the official said. ... The person spoke on condition of anonymity to not preempt the president's ​announcement, and cautioned that the details could still change.

The Trump administration has ​framed energy issues in existential terms as it eyes the domestic need to sustain ‌power-hungry ⁠artificial-intelligence data centers and aims to marginalize foreign adversaries that hold large fossil fuel reserves. Coal, though, has faced steady declines in U.S. usage. It once accounted for more than half of U.S. electricity generation, but fell ​to less than ​one-fifth in recent ⁠years, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

Power producers have largely switched to cheaper natural gas and renewable ​sources, wary of fossil fuel's effect on the planet's ​warming climate ⁠and increasing reliance on brittle global supply chains. ... Of the $700 million, more than half will fund 13 coal plant upgrades, $185 million will match corporate funds for ⁠coal facilities ​in Alaska, Maryland and West Virginia, and $75 ​million will support the long-proposed West Gateway export terminal in Northern California.

Bloomberg first reported the ​planned coal support.

Reporting by Jacob Bogage and Jarrett Renshaw; Editing by Jacqueline Wong