Earthjustice Denounces Trump Administration’s $700 Million Giveaway to the Coal Industry

Propping up uneconomic coal plants and export infrastructure harms our health and our economy

Contacts

Jill Fitzsimmons, jfitzsimmons@earthjustice.org

The Trump administration is expected to announce that it will invoke the Defense Production Act to use hundreds of millions in taxpayer dollars to prop up coal plants across the country and fund a proposed coal storage and handling facility in California.

Jill Tauber, Vice President of Litigation for Climate & Energy, issued the following statement:

“The Trump administration is once again abusing emergency powers to prop up dirty and uneconomic coal plants that harm our health and raise our electricity bills. Our taxpayer dollars should be used to ensure clean air and water for all Americans and bring down rising electricity costs, not for fossil fuel handouts. Earthjustice will continue to fight back against the Trump administration’s attempts to drag us backwards. As Congress considers reauthorizing the Defense Production Act, it must rein in this administration’s misuse of emergency powers to benefit polluting industries at taxpayers’ expense.”

Photo of the J.H. Campbell coal-fired power plant in West Olive, Michigan.
The J.H. Campbell coal-fired power plant in West Olive, Mich. Consumers Energy had planned to retire the plant on May 31, 2025, but President Trump ordered it to keep operating. (Jim West / Universal Images Group via Getty Images)

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Earthjustice is the premier nonprofit environmental law organization. We wield the power of law and the strength of partnership to protect people's health, to preserve magnificent places and wildlife, to advance clean energy, and to combat climate change. We are here because the earth needs a good lawyer.