President Trump on Wednesday issued an executive order directing the Department of War, formerly the Department of Defense, to buy electricity from coal-fired power plants. He also announced new funding to restart and upgrade coal plants in several states.
The executive order directs Secretary of War Pete Hegseth and Secretary of Energy Chris Wright to enter into long-term contracts with coal-fired plants to serve military installations and facilities. The order will “ensure military installations and critical defense facilities have uninterrupted, on-demand baseload power,” the White House said.
The Department of Energy will also award $175 million for six projects to “extend the useful life of coal-fired power plants” in rural and remote communities, including West Virginia, Ohio, North Carolina, Kentucky, and Ohio, the agency said.
Hundreds of coal plants have closed in the United States in recent years as inexpensive and cleaner natural gas and renewables became super-abundant. Coal is relatively inexpensive to produce but is the dirtiest fossil fuel, releasing considerable particulate air pollution, sulfur dioxide and mercury, and nearly twice the planet-warming carbon dioxide as natural gas.
Trump announced the initiatives at a White House event where he also received an “Undisputed Champion of Coal” award from the Washington Coal Club, a pro-coal group.
The actions continue the administration’s efforts to turn back the clock on the transition to cleaner energy and reverse efforts to address climate change. In 2025, coal was down to roughly 17% of the country’s electricity generation, from about 50% in 2000, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
The announcement comes on the eve of the administration’s expected repeal of the endangerment finding — the U.S. government’s longstanding scientific affirmation that carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases endanger public health and welfare.
It also comes as Trump takes steps to block electric vehicle initiatives and the development of renewable energy sources such as wind and solar — including ongoing legal battles over offshore wind projects on the East Coast and challenges to California’s authority to set strict tailpipe emission standards.
During Wednesday’s event, Trump credited coal with keeping the power on during recent winter storms while “solar and wind totally collapsed.”
“I’m not a fan of those crazy windmills that are all made in China,” Trump said.
But energy costs are rising across the U.S., and renewables represent the fastest, cheapest and cleanest resources available, said Julie McNamara, associate policy director of the climate and energy program at the nonprofit Union of Concerned Scientists. She described the president’s order as a “staggering, staggering waste of money, time and opportunity.”
“Forcing the use of increasingly unreliable and relentlessly uneconomic coal plants will risk outages and send high electricity costs higher,” McNamara said. “Recklessly slashing health, safety and environmental standards will harm people’s health and the environment. Communities that produce coal she said, need “actual, durable transition solutions.”
Ted Kelly, director and lead counsel for U.S. Clean Energy at the nonprofit Environmental Defense Fund, said the administration’s efforts are “focused on the coal industry’s profits, not the costs to American families and businesses.”
“This absurd misuse of public funds will lead to more air pollution, more asthma and higher electricity bills — all for ancient coal plants that barely work,” Kelly said. “At the same time, the Trump administration is blocking and canceling the cleanest, most affordable energy options from the grid, driving up costs even higher.”
Kelly noted the costs of coal are increasing: 99% of coal plants cost more to run than would it cost to replace them with renewable energy, according to an analysis from the non-partisan think tank Energy Innovation. A separate analysis from the consulting firm Grid Strategies found that forcing the continued operation of coal plants slated to retire could cost ratepayers more than $3 billion per year.
Some representatives from the coal industry were appreciative of the new order.
“As demand increases and our lives become increasingly electrified, America needs to generate more electricity, not less,” said Kayla Blackford, a worker at Bear Run Mine in Cougar, Indiana, during Wednesday’s event. “For years, coal miners have felt the weight of policies that made our future uncertain. Over the past year that weight has begun to lift.”
But even some within the industry have questioned the administration’s efforts. Last month, the owners of the Craig Generating Station in Colorado said the Department of Energy violated their Constitutional rights when it ordered them to continue running a coal-fired generator that they had been planning for more than a decade to retire.
The unit has become uneconomical to run, its owners said, and the cost of compelling it to remain online will ultimately fall on ratepayers in the area.
