President Trump wants to unleash a new era of coal, the dirty fossil fuel responsible for 60 percent of power-sector carbon dioxide emissions in 2022.
Trump signed an executive order on his first day in office to unleash fossil fuels, including coal. In April, he signed another edict claiming to “reinvigorate beautiful clean coal.” The EO said in part that “We must increase domestic energy production, including coal.” The order calls for the removal of federal regulatory barriers that undermine coal production and directs the secretaries of the Interior, Agriculture, and Energy to submit a report identifying coal reserves on federal lands.
The Big, Ugly Bill contains a subsidy for metallurgical (met) coal used in the manufacturing of steel. It reclassified met coal as a critical mineral, making it eligible for a tax credit. There is one problem. Most American-made coal is made from scrap metal and melted iron ore. Most (70 percent) of the 70 million tons of met coal from the U.S. ends up overseas.
The Interior Department continues to fast-track coal mining projects. The Hurricane Creek Mining, LLC wants to mine coal on Bryson Mountain in Claiborne County, Tennessee. The Interior Department expedited the approval of the project that will produce up to 1.8 million tons of coal over the next decade. Bryson Mountain is in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.
Removing Environmental Barriers To Coal Production
In June, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin announced the agency would update the Effluent Limitation Guidelines. The EPA found the rule placed a burden on the coal sector by not allowing the discharge of polluted wastewater. The rule protected communities from heavy metal water pollution, including mercury, arsenic, and lead from coal-fired power plants.
Rolling back the Effluent Limitation Guidelines allows coal plants to release an estimated 325,000 tons of toxic pollution into rivers and streams annually, according to the Sierra Club’s analysis. Exposure to those pollutants increases the risk of liver and kidney damage, cardiovascular illnesses, cancers, and developmental delays in children.
“This administration’s obsession with resurrecting coal in our country is despicable, and Americans ought to be disgusted by their flagrant disregard for public health and the environment,” said Patrick Drupp, Sierra Club Climate Policy Director.
Coal Won’t Make a Comeback
Despite the Trump administration’s deregulation of the coal industry, it is unlikely to make a comeback. Trump tried to revive the coal industry during his first term, but coal production continued to decline. The U.S. produced 578 million short tons (MMst) of coal in 2023, less than half the amount produced in 2008. The decline in coal production continued in 2024.
Twenty years ago, coal produced half of the U.S. power fleet. In 2024, solar and wind energy combined produced more electricity than coal did. Almost half of all coal-fired power plants have retired. The remaining plants are old, and no new plants have come in line in over 10 years. The average age of coal plants is 53 years.
Coal can no longer compete. In 2023, 96 percent of power capacity added to the grid came from carbon-free sources. A 2024 analysis found that 99 percent of coal plants are more expensive to operate than renewable energy. And coal is costly to consumers. Another 2024 analysis found that consumers in the Midwest have had over $1 billion added to their energy bills from coal plants operating when it was not economically feasible to do so.
Coal is a dirty fuel. Between 1999 and 2020, coal was responsible for 460,000 deaths. Coal pollution costs communities up to $236 in additional health costs. In 2022, Earthjustice found that 91 percent of coal plants that reported groundwater monitoring data had contaminated groundwater with toxic substances. Additionally, the organization found that 26 sites in 14 states had coal ash ponds that contaminated private drinking wells.
