Trump Unveils $700 Million Investment in Coal Industry – The Epoch Times

President Donald Trump shows a photo to members of his Cabinet during a “Beautiful, Clean Coal” event in the Oval Office of the White House 

President Donald Trump announced $700 million in federal investments meant to support U.S. coal plants and exports during an Oval Office ceremony on June 4.

“Today, we’re taking historic action to bring down the price of energy and the cost of living for all Americans with the power of clean, beautiful coal,” Trump said during the event.

“In terms of power, there’s really nothing like it.”

Investments will support 42 coal mines and more than 14,000 jobs while saving Americans more than $50 billion in electricity costs, according to the president.

The federal government will provide $485 million to protect more than a dozen existing coal plants across 10 states: Arizona, Arkansas, Indiana, Kentucky, North Carolina, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Tennessee, West Virginia, and Wisconsin.

“This action will allow these facilities to invest in upgrades that will extend their operational lives for decades into the future [and] reinforce the reliability of our electric grid,” Trump said.

Efforts to build new facilities and reopen others include $185 million to match private funds for the first new coal plants in the United States since 2013 in Alaska and West Virginia. A long-planned coal export terminal project at the Port of Oakland in California will receive $75 million to expedite opening.

Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum noted the importance of the new export facility.

“We can be selling clean, renewable energy to our allies, the Pacific ones,” Burgum said.

The move follows Trump’s executive order in April elevating coal supplies and power generation to a national security matter by invoking the Defense Production Act of 1950.

Administration officials prioritized the coal industry immediately after taking the White House in January 2025 when the president declared a “national energy emergency” shortly after his inauguration.

Since then, Cabinet leaders and agency heads have coordinated efforts to expand the coal industry, whose market share declined steeply from a peak of about 50 percent of domestic energy production in 2008 to approximately 15 percent in 2026, according to data from the Energy Information Agency.

“Without clean, beautiful coal, there is no modern world,” Energy Secretary Chris Wright said during the event, emphasizing what he described as a correlation between the adoption of wind and solar energy and higher electricity costs.

“Americans are upset about high electricity prices. Blame closing existing, reliable, secure plants and replacing them with subsidized, unreliable plants, a guaranteed way to drive electricity prices up.”

Industry representatives celebrated the announcement.

“Coal generation shields consumers from the impacts of volatile energy prices and supply challenges; it’s a vital piece of a sound energy strategy designed to meet the challenge of today’s [artificial intelligence-driven] demand growth in the context of the conflict in the Middle East,” Rich Nolan, president and CEO of the National Mining Association, said in a statement.

“The administration is supporting that strategy with decisive action at home to ensure that upgrades to existing energy assets are made, and at our ports to ensure that U.S. coal can answer the world’s needs.”

Critics of the investment package, including environmental groups, vowed to file challenges.

“It is disgusting and reprehensible that the President of the United States is giving away our taxpayer dollars to deadly and expensive coal plants that will make Americans sicker and drive up electricity prices even more,” Patrick Drupp, climate policy director for the Sierra Club, said in a statement.

“The Sierra Club will do everything we can to fight back against this reckless handout and defend our communities from more soaring costs and toxic pollution.”