“Beautiful, clean coal”: Under this motto, US President Donald Trump has announced investments of 700 million dollars (around 603 million euros) for the coal industry. The funds are intended to modernize US power plants, expand mines, and build a container port north of San Francisco dedicated to exports.
According to Trump, the funds are intended for the construction of two new coal-fired power plants. Additional resources are to be allocated to maintaining more than a dozen existing facilities and 42 coal mines. This would secure “more than 14,000 jobs,” the President said. Most of the facilities are located in states where Trump won a majority in the 2024 presidential election.
In doing so, the President is invoking an emergency law from the Cold War era. The Defense Production Act of 1950 grants the President authority over industries critical to national security.
Trump once again criticized Europeans for expanding wind power capacity. “They break down, they kill birds,” Trump claimed. He also reiterated his assertion that climate protection is a “hoax.”
As early as April of last year, Trump had signed several executive orders aimed at ramping up coal mining in the U.S. “to full speed.” This move halted the planned closure of several coal-fired power plants that had been intended as a climate protection measure. The Trump administration attributes the increased energy demand to the power consumption of data centers used for artificial intelligence (AI).
Burning coal produces the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide (CO2). Coal mining in the U.S. had declined sharply prior to Trump’s second term in office. In 2024, coal accounted for just 15 percent of the country’s total energy generation.
AFP translated by Blackout News