OPINION:
In early April, President Trump issued an executive order to “reinvigorate America’s beautiful clean coal industry.”
“In order to secure America’s economic prosperity and national security, lower the cost of living, and provide for increases in electrical demand from emerging technologies, we must increase domestic energy production, including coal,” the order bluntly stated.
The U.S. Energy Information Administration said in 2023 that “about 4,178 billion kilowatt-hours … of electricity were generated at utility-scale electricity generation facilities in the United States.” That year, natural gas provided 43.1% of utility-scale electricity generation, nuclear power provided 18.6%, coal provided 16.2%, wind provided 10.2%, and solar provided 3.9%.
Once upon a time, coal was king. In fact, from 1950 to the early 2000s, coal was the primary energy source for U.S. electricity generation. In 2007, coal provided more than 2,000 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity. As of 2023, that steeply declined to 675 billion kilowatt-hours.
The story of coal’s unfortunate and untimely demise began under President Obama. In 2008, while campaigning for the presidency, Mr. Obama issued this ominous warning: “If somebody wants to build a coal plant, they can. It’s just that it will bankrupt them because they are going to be charged a huge sum for all that greenhouse gas that’s being emitted.”
While in the White House, Mr. Obama kicked his war on coal into high gear. During his two terms, he used executive agencies to regulate the coal industry nearly out of existence. Tens of thousands of Americans in the coal industry lost their jobs, hundreds of coal mines were shuttered and perfectly operational coal power plants were prematurely retired based purely on climate alarmism.
As the Obama administration made life exceedingly difficult for anyone involved in the coal industry, it spent untold billions of dollars subsidizing so-called renewable energy.
Hence, it should come as no surprise that domestic coal consumption and production have plummeted since 2009.
Like it or not, coal provides reliable and affordable energy because of its sheer abundance and high energy density.
Moreover, new technologies and methods have made coal much cleaner in recent years. As the Department of Energy notes, “Coal-fired electricity generation is cleaner than ever … research shows that a new coal plant with pollution controls reduces nitrogen oxides by 83 percent, sulfur dioxide by 98 percent, and particulate matter by 99.8 percent compared to plants without controls.”
Since Mr. Obama’s war on coal, Americans have paid the price with higher energy costs and a less reliable grid. Meanwhile, adversarial nations such as China have built hundreds of coal-fired power plants.
The juxtaposition between China’s unencumbered coal power plant buildout and America’s self-sacrifice of its once mighty coal industry is particularly disturbing, given that coal will almost assuredly play a pivotal role in the global race for artificial intelligence and quantum computing supremacy.
These technologies of the future require vast amounts of reliable, affordable and abundant energy. As of now, “green” energy sources such as wind and solar are not even close to being capable of powering tomorrow’s technologies.
The Trump administration understands that affordable, reliable and clean energy is vital to the future of the United States.
With Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin, Interior Secretary Doug Burnum and Energy Secretary Chris Wright, the Trump energy team is doing all it can to ensure that America’s grid is as robust and resilient as possible.
Mr. Burgum is playing a leading role in the coal renaissance. “By reducing the royalty rate for coal, increasing coal acres available for leasing, and unlocking critical minerals from mine waste, we are strengthening our economy, protecting national security, and ensuring that communities from Montana to Alabama benefit from good-paying jobs,” he recently said.
“We are on a path to continually shrink the electricity we generate from coal,” Mr. Wright cautioned in February. “That has made electricity more expensive and our grid less stable.”
It also puts the United States on a dangerous footing as the AI arms race becomes a central concern.
Don’t pay attention to climate alarmists’ talking points that coal is dirty and dangerous. Rather, a compelling case can be made that clean coal should be a pivotal player in America’s energy portfolio for years to come.
• Chris Talgo (ctalgo@heartland.org) is editorial director at The Heartland Institute.
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