President Trump this week continued to make his environmental priorities clear by vowing to open up hundreds of coal power plants in the United States in an effort to advance competition against China.
“After years of being held captive by Environmental Extremists, Lunatics, Radicals, and Thugs, allowing other Countries, in particular China, to gain tremendous Economic advantage over us by opening up hundreds of all Coal Fire Power Plants, I am authorizing my Administration to immediately begin producing Energy with BEAUTIFUL, CLEAN COAL,” Trump wrote in a post on social media Monday.
Though the post was not linked to any particular policy plans or documents, it arrives as the White House takes aim at various environmental agencies and clean-energy initiatives. In the last week alone, the administration has announced plans to significantly roll back regulations that govern coal production and to potentially lay off up to 65% of scientists and researchers at the Environmental Protection Agency, among other actions.
Coal accounts for about 16% of the country’s electricity generation, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration — down from about 50% in 2000 as natural gas and nuclear and renewable energy have grown. Though relatively inexpensive to produce, coal is considered the dirtiest fossil fuel and comes with considerable environmental costs, including the release of particulate air pollution and nearly twice the amount of planet-warming carbon dioxide as natural gas.
Among the coal-related items up for reconsideration by the EPA are its Mercury and Air Toxic Standards — regulations that limit emissions from the nation’s largest plants that burn coal and oil to heat water, which produces steam and in turn generates electricity.
The standards have “achieved significant health and environmental benefits by reducing a broad range of hazardous air pollutants,” according to the EPA’s website. But the agency now says that the standards “improperly targeted coal-fired power plants” and should be revisited.
“EPA needs to pursue commonsense regulation to Power the Great American Comeback, not continue down the last administration’s path of destruction and destitution,” the agency’s top administrator, Lee Zeldin, said in a statement last week. “At EPA, we are committed to protecting human health and the environment; we are opposed to shutting down clean, affordable and reliable energy for American families.”
Zeldin said the standards put in place by the Biden administration would cost the EPA more than $790 million between 2028 and 2038. As his EPA challenges these standards, Zeldin said, his agency is considering a two-year compliance exemption for affected power plants as it goes through the rule-making process.
The nation’s top environmental agency last week also announced a review of regulations that govern the disposal of coal ash — the byproduct of burning coal in power plants. The EPA hopes to prioritize a coal ash program that would expedite permit reviews and put coal ash regulations more fully into state hands, Zeldin said. The agency will similarly review rules that extend federal coal ash regulations to unregulated areas where coal ash is managed, such as inactive power plants.
Zeldin said the agency’s impending changes will bolster the United States’ position as an energy leader and help save money for millions of Americans. “President Trump has delivered on his promise to unleash energy dominance and lower the cost of living,” he said. “We at EPA will do our part to power the great American comeback.”
These proposed changes, along with the president’s social media post, underscore a considerable shift away from the clean energy initiatives of the Biden administration, including its push for green infrastructure and electric vehicles.
The U.S. had been on track to close half of its coal-fired generation capacity by 2026, according to a report from the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis.
But Interior Secretary Doug Burgum told Bloomberg News last week that the administration is now looking for ways to revive coal plants that have closed, and to prevent others from shutting down. Burgum and other officials have said keeping the plants online can help lower energy costs for U.S. consumers, among other benefits.
Burgum also told Bloomberg that the administration wants to undo the Biden administration’s “attack on U.S. energy” by cutting through red tape and empowering the nation to compete in an AI arms race against China. AI data centers require immense amounts of energy, which can come from coal or other sources.
Trump’s social media post suggests the renewed focus on coal is part of a power play against China, which relies heavily on cheap coal power for its manufacturing sector and economic expansion. About 60% of China’s power comes from coal, which has resulted in some of the worst levels of air pollution and particulate matter in the world.
That said, though China continues to rely heavily on coal, it has also begun investing in solar and wind power. The U.S., it seems, may be heading in the opposite direction.
Last year, California Gov. Gavin Newsom traveled to China to help promote global cooperation on climate change and model California policies on clean energy and pollution reduction. In the last week, the Trump administration has suggested that a key tenet in the scientific understanding of fossil fuels — that greenhouse gases, a primary byproduct of burning coal, are harmful to human health and the environment — could be reconsidered.
