Trump’s order is the newest transfer by US administration to spice up fossil gas business regardless of local weather change considerations.
Revealed On 12 Feb 2026
United States President Donald Trump has ordered the Pentagon to purchase electrical energy generated by coal, his newest effort to boost demand for the fossil fuel amid its declining value competitiveness and local weather change considerations.
In an government order signed on Wednesday, Trump directed the US Division of Defence to enter into long-term buy agreements with coal-fired crops and prioritise the “preservation and strategic utilisation” of “coal-based vitality property”.
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Trump’s order didn’t specify how a lot vitality the Pentagon would buy or underneath what monetary phrases.
“You achieve this a lot,” Trump mentioned at a White Home occasion attended by coal business executives and miners.
“You warmth our houses, gas our factories, and switch pure assets into American riches and goals,” he mentioned.
Trump additionally introduced that the US Division of Vitality would make investments $175m to improve six coal crops in North Carolina, Ohio, West Virginia, Kentucky and Virginia.
“A very powerful individuals right here at this time are those that get their palms slightly bit soiled to maintain America working at full velocity – our entrance line coal employees,” Trump mentioned.
Coal manufacturing within the US has been in decline for many years amid rising competitors from pure gasoline and renewables, together with wind, hydropower and photo voltaic.
Manufacturing fell by greater than half between 2008 and 2023, when output hit 578 million tonnes, in line with the US Vitality Data Administration.
The fossil gas accounted for about 16 % of US vitality manufacturing in 2023, behind pure gasoline and renewables at 43 % and 21 %, respectively.
Trump: ‘Stunning, clear coal’
A 2023 evaluation by Vitality Innovation, a California-based nonprofit, discovered that 99 % of coal-powered amenities within the US have been costlier to run than the price of their substitute with renewable alternate options.
Trump has championed the revival of “stunning, clear coal” as essential to boosting home manufacturing and reaching US dominance in synthetic intelligence, regardless of the fossil gas’s flagging competitiveness and contribution to greenhouse gases that drive local weather change.
Trump, who initiated Washington’s exit from the Paris local weather accord and has described the scientific consensus on warming temperatures as a “con job”, declared an “vitality emergency” on his first day in workplace to stop the closure of ageing coal crops.
The US Vitality Division has compelled not less than 5 crops to increase their operations past their scheduled retirement date since Trump’s order.
Additionally on Wednesday, the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), the most important public utility supplier within the US, voted to increase the lifespan of two coal crops that had been scheduled for closure by 2035.
The TVA vote got here after the utility added 4 Trump appointees to its board of administrators final month, after the US president had earlier fired three board members chosen by his predecessor, President Joe Biden.
