By Jarrett Renshaw and Timothy Gardner
WASHINGTON, June 4 (Reuters) – President Donald Trump said on Thursday he will invoke Cold War-era emergency powers to direct nearly $700 million to help the U.S. coal industry ship the carbon-intensive fuel to Asia, and power companies to burn it domestically.
Trump plans to use the Defense Production Act, a 1950 law granting presidents broad authority over industries deemed critical to national security, to fund upgrades to over a dozen coal-fired power plants, help finance two new coal plants, and support construction of a West Coast coal export terminal.
The Trump administration has framed energy policy as a national security issue to ensure electricity for AI data centers and reduce reliance on other countries.
Trump said funds for “clean beautiful coal” would help reduce the cost of living for all Americans at an event in the Oval Office, flanked by Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, Energy Secretary Chris Wright, and Republican governors Mark Gordon of Wyoming and Patrick Morrisey of West Virginia.
Gordon, who recently visited Japan and Taiwan, said they are hungry for coal from Wyoming. Opening the California port is “absolutely essential for the lifeblood of our state,” the top coal-producing state in the U.S., he said.
POLLUTION CONCERNS
The plan drew condemnation from environmental advocates who say the particulate emissions from coal are linked to health issues, including heart and lung diseases, that shorten lives and saddle Americans with medical bills.
Patrick Drupp, climate policy director at the Sierra Club, called it a taxpayer-funded subsidy for a polluting industry and said the group would fight the initiative in courts.
“It is disgusting and reprehensible that the president of the United States is giving away our taxpayer dollars to deadly and expensive coal plants,” Drupp said.
Rich Nolan, CEO of the National Mining Association, said the funding would strengthen production of a fuel source that helps insulate consumers from energy price volatility while supporting rising electricity demand.
“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,” Nolan said.
Coal, responsible for more than half of U.S. electricity generation in 1990, now generates less than one-fifth as utilities shifted toward cheaper natural gas and renewable energy sources. Despite rolling back environmental regulations on the industry, Trump has been unable to boost the ranks of coal miners. The number of working U.S. coal miners has fallen from about 51,500 in 2017 to about 39,800 last year, according to the St. Louis Fed.
More than half of the funding would be used to upgrade 13 coal-fired power plants, with additional money for coal facilities in Alaska, Maryland and West Virginia and the long-proposed West Gateway coal export terminal in Northern California, the official said.
(Reporting By Jarrett RenshawEditing by Rod Nickel)
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