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Trump administration considering support for new, small-scale coal plants

The U.S. government is developing a plan to build small-scale coal-fired power plants, according to a report from a major energy conference in Houston.

The smaller coal plants would better complement the electrical grid, said Steven Winberg, assistant secretary for fossil energy at the U.S. Department of Energy, according to Axios. The agency could offer a cost-share funding opportunity for entities that would compete for the funding.

Winberg told Axios that the coal sector, which has rapidly declined in production volume in recent years, could survive if the smaller power plants are successful. Winberg suggested the plants may represent a "paradigm shift" in a market that has been rapidly moving from coal to natural gas and renewable energy generation.

The Houston Chronicle previously reported the Department of Energy's 2019 budget included funding for at least two designs for smaller, modular coal plants that produce more electricity from less coal. To fund the push for the high-efficiency plants, the paper reported, the Trump administration is proposing an 80% cut from the $196.3 million budgeted for the research of carbon capture technology.

The idea follows the failure of an effort to secure incentives for certain power plants that provided baseload power to the grid. That proposal, led by Energy Secretary Rick Perry, was rejected by members of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.