Trump announces $700M in funding for US coal plants, export facility

The Trump administration is bolstering its fossil fuel-focused energy agenda with another $700 million in federal subsidies for new and existing coal-fired power plants in 12 states. The funding, some of which will be released under the Defense Production Act, will also support the construction of a large coal export facility in California.

President Donald Trump made the announcement June 4 at the White House, flanked by federal agency officials, the governors of West Virginia and Wyoming, and Republican lawmakers.

"We will protect 14 coal plants and 42 coal mines ... and build two new coal plants and one massive export terminal," Trump said. "It's real power in terms of power."

The existing power plants getting funding are in Arizona, Arkansas, Indiana, Kentucky, North Carolina, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Tennessee, West Virginia and Wisconsin.

The new funding package also includes grants to help finance new coal plants in Alaska and West Virginia, but the US Energy Department offered no details on those projects. The funds will also be used to retrofit an existing plant in Puerto Rico and recommission the Warrior Run Cogeneration plant in Maryland, which was retired in 2024.

Warrior Run owner AES Corp. has told the state it is considering restarting the facility using coal and then transferring operations to battery storage, said Rhyan Lake, a spokesperson for Maryland Governor Wes Moore. The state will monitor the project to make sure it meets the state's standards and priorities, Lake said.

"Lowering energy costs and supporting good-paying jobs are the highest priorities for Governor Moore [and] the best way to do that is by investing in the clean energy sources of the future," Lake said in an email. "Instead, the Trump administration is subsidizing energy sources of the last century while shutting down projects that are cheaper, faster and cleaner."

Among other recipients are East Kentucky Power Cooperative Inc., for work at its H.L. Spurlock plant, and American Electric Power Co. Inc. subsidiary Wheeling Power Co., for work at its Mitchell (WV) plant in West Virginia.

The latest round of financing follows the president's commitment in February to award $175 million for upgrades and retrofits at seven coal plants in West Virginia, Kentucky, Ohio and North Carolina.

California export facility gets funding boost

The funding also includes $75 million for a new coal export terminal in Oakland, California.

The terminal, located at the former Oakland Army Base, has sparked environmental challenges. But the project's developers are moving forward after the California Supreme Court declined to review a lower court ruling.

Groundbreaking for the terminal, also referred to as the West Gateway Project, is anticipated this summer. The terminal will be able to ship more than 12 million tons of coal per year by the summer of 2028, Trump said.

US coal is primarily exported through the East Coast and Gulf Coast. The US exported 93 million short tons of coal in 2025, a 16 million st decrease after four years of growth, according to the US Energy Information Administration. The agency attributes the decline to decreased Chinese exports and Chinese tariffs.

The investment will support more than 14,000 jobs and save Americans $50 billion in electricity costs, Trump said. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for details on those estimates.

Energy Secretary Chris Wright said the federal funding will be matched by $1.7 billion in company investments.

"No coal, no modern world," Wright said. "Without clean, beautiful coal, a modern world is impossible."

Coal industry cheering

"Today's announcement reflects the Trump administration's recognition that coal is a critical part of America's energy security," Michelle Bloodworth, CEO of the trade group America's Power, said in a statement. "Coal plants provide around-the-clock baseload power with on-site fuel storage, giving military installations and critical industries a level of resilience that is difficult to replicate. As electricity demand grows from data centers, artificial intelligence, and electrification, maintaining that foundation matters more than ever."

Since the first quarter of 2025, America's Power has reported $130,000 in federal lobbying expenses to push for policies benefiting the US coal fleet. The DOE and Executive Office of the President were among those Bloodworth contacted while lobbying for the group.

The funding affirms that coal is essential to the US economy, Emily Arthun, CEO of the American Coal Council, said in a statement.

"These investments protect good-paying jobs, reinforce grid reliability, and ensure that American coal continues to serve as a cornerstone of our industrial base and global competitiveness," Arthun said. "When we invest in coal, we invest in America's economic well-being and the future of the communities that fuel it."

Reliability and cost concerns

Critics of the president's plan to boost coal production cited the cost of operating coal plants at a time when Americans worry about rising power bills. They also noted the frequent outages plaguing many coal plants in comparison with other baseload sources.

Analysis by the North American Electric Reliability Corp., published in 2024, showed that coal-fired power plants' unplanned outage rate was nearly six times higher than that of nuclear plants and significantly higher than that of natural gas-fired plants.

Coal-fired power plants also emit roughly twice as much carbon dioxide into the atmosphere as do natural gas-fired plants. Coal mines are a major source of methane, which is more than 80 times more potent a greenhouse gas in the short term than carbon dioxide.

"The Warrior Run Power Plant was polluting and expensive to ratepayers," the Sierra Club's Maryland Chapter director, Josh Tulkin, said in a statement. "Prior to its retirement in June 2024, the coal plant emitted over 400,000 tons of carbon dioxide into our air every year along with hundreds of tons of toxic chemicals. Now, the Trump administration wants to pull our state back into the past and bring this expensive, polluting coal plant out of retirement."

Trump's decision to allocate more tax dollars to support the US coal industry comes as the US energy sector continues to increase releases of climate-warming greenhouse gases. In 2025, power sector emissions rose nearly 4% while methane releases jumped 9%, according to estimates by the Rhodium Group and International Energy Agency.