EPA, energy, interior announce plans to support coal extraction

On September 29, the Trump administration announced a series of actions intended to stimulate coal extraction and generating electricity, the latest step in a government-wide effort to reverse the decline of the fuel.

The announcements of the EPA, energy and interior departments are intended to strengthen the domestic coal industry in a time of increasing electricity that largely because of data centers for artificial intelligence. Administration officials and conference republicans said these changes are needed to guarantee the US competitiveness.

“Coal is still growing all over the world. People talk about peak cabbage, most consumption, but last year the year most coal was used in the world, and of course we are in a competition,” said Doug Burgum Minister, referring to the AI ​​industry in China. “If we don’t lead in electrical production, we will lose the AI ​​weapon race.”

The energy department will provide $ 625 million to subsidize and support coal -fired factories, including $ 350 million for the after -side and recommending coal -fired power stations on or near their retirement data and $ 175 million for coal power projects in rural communities.

The Ministry of the Interior said that it will open more than 13 million hectares of federal land for coal extraction and streamlines that allows the approval process for other mines. It will also implement a provision of the Republican reconciliation legislation that reduces the royalty rate for coal from 12.5 percent to 7%.

And the EPA announced legal changes that would prefer coal -fired power plants. They include offering plants with more time to comply with existing guidelines for effluent restrictions, which control the coal axis waste water pollution, and a prior notice of proposed regulations on changes in the regional nebulaut of the Clean Air Act.

The American production of coal has been declined for more than two decades in the Republican and Democratic government administrations, with this most CO2 emission-intensive fuel that is moved by natural gas, wind and solar energy.

However, the Trump government has been critical of wind and solar energy, which blocks projects on federal countries and waters. Civil servants claim that these forms of energy, even in combination with batteries, remain too unreliable and cannot support AI and other industries. In addition, energy secretary Chris Wright and others have criticized that wind and solar energy subsidies, with the argument that they are evidence that these renewable energy sources are not cost-effective.

Instead, they have called for increased efforts to preserve and expand forms of baseload force, including coal. Earlier in 2025, President Donald Trump signed an executive order to support the coal industry.

In the speech of the United Nations, Trump repeated his conviction that climate change was a “hoax” and said that European countries were on the “edge of destruction because of the green energy agenda.”

EPA manager Lee Zeldin said in an interview with Fox News on 25 September that he agreed with Trump’s statements. Last week Wright also characterized a network of scientists who agree on the severity of climate change and its impact as ‘activists’.

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