(CN) — President Donald Trump is expected to sign executive orders on Tuesday aimed at boosting the declining U.S. coal industry, according to White House officials.
“Today at 3PM, President Trump will sign an Executive Order to reinvigorate AFFORDABLE, RELIABLE, AND CLEAN COAL!” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt wrote on X on Tuesday. “Coal is critical to achieving American Energy and AI Dominance.”
Under the expected orders, Trump will reportedly use his emergency authority to allow some older coal-fired power plants set for closure to keep producing electricity to meet the nation’s rising power demand. They will direct federal agencies to identify coal resources on federal lands, loosen various restrictions on coal mining and resume coal leasing on public lands, according to information from the White House officials.
Driven by data center growth and transportation electrification, U.S. electricity demand will increase 2% annually and 50% by 2050, the National Electrical Manufacturers Association said in a study published Monday.
During a press conference, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said Trump will discuss the plans Tuesday evening for his “drill baby, drill” agenda, which she said will capitalize “on the abundance of natural resources under our feet to generate more affordable electricity, cheap gas and quality new jobs.”
The president already issued executive orders in January calling for prioritizing energy development, such as by lifting regulations that impede development of fossil fuels.
As a result, the Environmental Protection Agency last month began the process of dismantling certain restrictions on coal plants’ carbon emissions, mercury pollution and wastewater runoff. The Interior Department approved an expansion of a Montana coal mine, and the Bureau of Land Management is considering an “emergency” lease to mine coal on public lands in North Dakota.
The National Mining Association, an industry lobbying group, praised Trump for reversing what it called the Biden administration’s “hostility” toward fossil fuels.
“Today’s reported executive actions by President Trump clearly prioritize how to responsibly keep the lights on, recognize the enormous strategic value of American mined coal and embrace the economic opportunity that comes from American energy abundance,” Rich Nolan, the association’s president, said in a statement. “It’s a stark shift from the prior administration’s punitive regulatory agenda, hostile energy policies and unlawful land grabs.”
Trump, a Republican, has long promised to boost production of what he calls “beautiful, clean” coal to fire power plants and to roll back some of former President Joe Biden’s climate and environmental regulations.
However, the industry surrounding the heavily polluting fuel has been in dramatic decline for decades, amid surging investments in U.S. natural gas production and technological innovation that has slashed the cost of renewable energy.
Facing competition from cheaper and cleaner natural gas sources, 290 coal power plants, representing 40% of the U.S. coal generating capacity, closed between 2010 and May 2019.
In 2023, coal accounted for about 16% of U.S. electricity generation, with natural gas being the largest source at 43% and fossil fuels overall making up about 60% of the total, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
But companies that are acquiring data centers to power the constant demand for artificial intelligence and computing services are seeking more energy sources as the massive facilities consume huge amounts of electricity. They are turning to coal-fired electricity because it can run around the clock with only periodic downtime for maintenance, unlike solar and wind power, which are subject to vagaries of weather conditions unless they’re paired with battery storage.
There are now over 5,000 data centers in the country, with new ones being built every day, each consuming as much electricity as 50,000 homes.
But while tech firms that want off-the-grid power might invest in a coal-fired power plant that would be cheaper to operate, such retiring plants need time to fire back up, unlike natural gas plants that can stop and start generation daily.
The desire to reverse coal plant closures also faces opposition from environmentalists who fear the implications on climate change and air pollution, as electricity generation accounts for one-quarter of U.S. carbon emissions, according to the EPA.
At the front line of what Trump’s allies call the “war on coal” is the Powder River Basin of Wyoming and Montana, a sparsely populated section of the Great Plains with the nation’s largest coal mines. It’s also home to a massive coal-generating power plant in Colstrip, Montana, that emits more toxic air pollutants such as arsenic, lead and mercury than any other U.S. facility of its kind, according to the EPA.