President Donald Trump is reshaping the Pentagon — the government’s largest energy consumer — from an innovator in renewable power to a champion of fossil fuels.
Following Trump’s recent executive order last month, the Pentagon will accept bids through mid-May for power purchase agreements to fuel military installations with coal. There are hundreds of military sites that run on power from utility companies.
The request is the latest show of Trump’s push to revive a U.S. coal industry beset by plant and mine closures and rising costs while also rolling back critical climate protections and forcing retiring coal plants to continue operating.
“We’re going to be buying a lot of coal through the military now,” Trump said last month after inking the order.
