The Cost of Trump’s Coal Fixation

The Trump administration and its allies in Congress are doing all they can to prop up the struggling coal industry. The administration has held press conferences with coal miners lined as a backdrop to tout its “mine, baby, mine” agenda while flooding the industry with subsidies to try to keep it afloat.

But three recent mining lease sales of public land — including two in the Powder River Basin, the largest coal producing region in the United States — have completely flopped.

Even conservative voices in the Northern Rockies are now publicly questioning whether elected officials’ wishful thinking on coal is dooming state economies for years to come.

Americans Will Pay More for Trump’s Coal Agenda

The administration’s policies ask the American taxpayer to pick up the tab for a dangerous and polluting industry with a failing market, while they simultaneously attack affordable and reliable clean energy. Removing pollution control requirements, forcing outdated coal power plants to operate past their retirement dates, and offering up our public lands to industry will not only harm our health and environment: it will hurt our pocketbooks through higher energy prices at a time when so many of us are already struggling. The administration’s use of sham emergency orders to stop a Michigan coal-fired plant from retiring cost customers $29 million in just the first five weeks it was forced to keep burning coal.

While the administration and Republicans in Congress remove incentives for and block clean energy development, they are also increasingly subsidizing the fossil fuel industry at our expense. The Department of Energy recently announced that it will provide $625 million to subsidize aging, polluting coal-fired power plants. And earlier this year, the Republicans passed a budget bill that cut the coal royalty rate from a 12.5% floor to a 7% ceiling, providing the industry a handout at the expense of a critical funding stream for state and local governments that goes toward schools and colleges, highway and road construction, and city and town budgets.

Clean energy is now cheaper than coal in many places and investing in it helps to keep down electricity costs for Americans. So why is the Trump administration selling out our communities by propping up this costly and polluting fuel source while attacking clean energy?

Kids take a break in a swimming pool in the shadow of the James H. Miller, Jr., coal-fired power plant in Adamsville, Ala. The Trump administration has exempted the plant from pollution limits set in the 2024 Mercury and Air Toxics Standards. (Andrew Caballero-Reynolds / AFP via Getty Images)

The MAGA Agenda Lets Other Countries Lead on Clean Energy

In addition to raising energy prices, the Trump administration and its allies in Congress have given a competitive edge to other countries that continue to grow their clean energy industries. According to the New York Times, Chinese companies now produce 60% of the world’s wind turbines and 80% of solar panels. America has a rich history of progress and leadership on emerging industries, but the MAGA movement now seems hellbent on rejecting these new opportunities to allow other countries to win the clean energy space.

Despite Trump’s attacks on clean energy, other countries around the world continue to move toward renewables. In fact, renewables have now overtaken coal as the primary source of electricity around the world for the first time. Trump and congressional Republicans are holding us back from competing on the global stage.

Workers transfer lithium-ion batteries. (Chinatopix via AP)

A Fake Energy Emergency at Our Expense

Upon taking office, the Trump administration immediately declared an energy emergency, but this is completely fabricated. Even before Trump took office, the U.S. was producing more oil and gas than any nation on the planet has in the history of human civilization. If the purpose of Trump’s actions was to address an actual energy emergency, it would be nonsensical to simultaneously adopt policies that inhibit wind and solar energy development and promote coal exports to other countries. President Trump’s manufactured emergency is meant to line the pockets of wealthy fossil fuel CEOs at the expense of our communities.

Much of the administration’s push for fossil fuels is ostensibly about fueling large-load data center development and the massive energy requirements that come with it, rather than providing power for American families. Communities are being forced (oftentimes without their knowledge) to take on both the cost and environmental risks of the AI boom. These data centers require enormous amounts of electricity, generate an excessive amount of waste, noise pollution, and require vast amounts of water. They often end up raising electricity rates for customers and are keeping fossil fuel-burning power plants online, disrupting the transition to clean energy and rolling back progress on fossil fuels. The administration’s actions on coal further exacerbate this growing threat to our communities and utility customers. Earthjustice attorneys represent local communities before state utility regulators to protect customers from subsidizing data centers.

High-voltage transmission lines provide electricity to data centers in Ashburn in Loudon County, Virginia. (Ted Shaffrey / AP)

Opening Up National Public Lands

Trump isn’t just pushing to burn more coal — he also wants to mine more of it. The administration recently announced that it was opening 13.1 million acres of our national public lands to coal leasing. But even with the subsidies from the administration and Congress, three recent lease sales in the Powder River Basin and Utah have fallen flat, illustrating the market’s continued shift away from coal. Companies don’t want this coal even when it’s on the clearance rack.

The American people also don’t want to turn over our national public lands to industry. According to the 2025 Conservation in the West poll, Western voters want their members of Congress to prioritize conservation over energy development on our national public lands by the widest margin to date — a whopping 72%. Americans want our elected officials to protect our public lands for recreation opportunities, wildlife, and economic benefits for local communities.

Uinta Basin in northeast Utah. (Jared Hargrave)

President Trump’s Coal Fantasy

Since taking office in 2017, President Trump has promised to bring back the coal industry. It didn’t happen in his first term and it will not happen now. While the U.S. may see a temporary bump in coal production, it will not last as the market continues to move toward cheaper and cleaner energy. The Trump administration and its allies in Congress are selling coal communities and states a bill of goods — and even longtime coal supporters in those states are starting to recognize it. By doubling down on an industry that continues to decline even with heavy subsidies behind it, and refusing to support transition plans, elected officials are dooming communities and workers with false hope.

Even while the administration moves forward with its coal industry bailout, it is leaving behind the same workers who have been asked to line up behind members of the administration at press conferences. Recently, coal miners from across the country protested at the Department of Labor over the administration’s failure to enforce limits on silica dust — a carcinogen that has led to a spike in black lung disease. The administration is ignoring worker health while helping its industry executive friends get even richer.

Earthjustice Continues to Fight Back

In Michigan, Earthjustice has active litigation to shut down the coal plant that Trump’s fake energy emergency has kept running past its scheduled retirement. In the coming months, we will fight more mandates like this one across the country.

Earlier this year we also sued the Trump administration for its unlawful decision to exempt dozens of coal-fired power plants, including Montana’s Colstrip plant, from stronger pollution limits set in the 2024 Mercury and Air Toxics Standards.

The coal-fired Colstrip Generating Station is seen behind youths playing baseball in Colstrip, Montana. The EPA says the plant is the highest emitter of toxic metal pollutants in the nation. (Matthew Brown / AP)

Earthjustice has also fought expansions of some of the country’s largest coal mines for years and will continue to protect communities against Trump’s plans to authorize reckless new mining in the Northern Rockies region. Even though the coal industry’s allies in Congress recently passed an unprecedented Congressional Review Act resolution to reopen the Powder River Basin to new coal leasing, we are continuing to challenge mine expansions at the Rosebud and Bull Mountains coal mines and will take on the administration whenever it tries to sell off more of our public lands. Thankfully, as the recent failed lease sales show, the market is already rejecting the Trump administration’s coal fantasy.

The Rosebud coal mine in Colstrip, Montana, north of the Northern Cheyenne Indian Reservation. (EcoFlight)

Wherever the Trump administration and its allies in Congress attempt to illegally turn back progress on coal, we will meet them in court. We have come too far on the fight for clean energy and regulations to protect our health and environment from coal pollution to turn back now.

The Trump administration is doing all it can to resuscitate the struggling coal industry, but both the market and environmental advocates have other plans.

It is time to end the era of coal once and for all.