Trump orders Pentagon to buy coal power in boost to industry

WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump moved on several fronts to prolong US reliance on coal power, as he ordered the Pentagon to purchase electricity from plants and announced millions of dollars to upgrade existing facilities.

Mr Trump directed Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth to enter into agreements to purchase electricity from coal plants to power military operations. Under the directive, the Pentagon’s energy installation office would pursue long-term agreements offering the promise of more demand and business certainty. 

“We’re going to be buying a lot of coal through the military now, and it’s going to be less expensive and actually much more effective than what we have been using for many, many years,” Mr Trump said on Feb 11 during a White House event attended by miners, coal executives and energy industry leaders.

Mr Trump hailed coal as “the most reliable, dependable” form of energy and said his administration’s actions would help boost generation, delivering lower prices for consumers and ensuring industries critical to national security had steady power supplies.

“Coal power generation is up by nearly 15 per cent in my first year, and that number is going to be about 25 per cent or 30 per cent this coming year,” Mr Trump said.

“More coal means lower cost and more money in the pocket of the American citizens and in the pocket, frankly, of the United States of America. That’s not bad,” he added.

The president also extolled the Tennessee Valley Authority’s plans to continue operating two coal-fired power plants that had been on track for retirement and announced Energy Department funding to support upgrades at coal plants. The US$175 million (S$220 million) will fund upgrades at six coal plants in Kentucky, North Carolina, Ohio, Virginia and West Virginia, according to a White House official.

The shares of coal miner Peabody Energy rose as much as 9.6 per cent in US post-market trading. During the event, Peabody chief executive officer Jim Grech said the company was “working with the administration on the potential to build new coal-fuelled power plants”.

The efforts mark Mr Trump’s latest bid to bolster both the mining and consumption of coal, a fossil fuel whose use as a source of electricity in the US had declined amid competition from cheaper natural gas and renewable alternatives as well as concerns about climate change.

That dynamic has shifted with policy changes from Washington and as utilities seek to meet surging electricity demand driven by the energy-hungry artificial intelligence industry. 

Mr Trump touts electricity from what he calls “clean, beautiful coal” as essential to address two of his political imperatives – both helping the US win a global competition over AI and securing lower utility bills for consumers ahead of November’s midterm elections.

The Energy Department has already issued emergency orders requiring some coal plants to keep running, and the Interior Department has moved to open more federal land for coal leasing in North Dakota, Montana and Wyoming. 

At the same time Mr Trump has moved to bolster coal, his administration is ending federal support for some projects to supply grids with wind and solar power. The administration is also easing regulations that encouraged a shift away from the fossil fuels that drive climate change. 

Environmentalists said the moves represented a bid by the federal government to prop up a dirty-burning source of electricity at the expense of cleaner alternatives – far from the “all-of-the-above” approach to energy that for years united many Republicans and Democrats in Washington. 

“While Americans are demanding clean, affordable energy, the Trump administration is using our tax dollars to prop up the nation’s dirtiest, least-efficient power plants,” said President of the Natural Resources Defence Council Manish Bapna. BLOOMBERG