The Trump administration on Wednesday formally reinstated the National Coal Council, an advisory group focused on fossil fuels that existed for more than three decades before lapsing under the Biden administration.
The Department of Energy in a Federal Register notice restored the group for two years, drawing applause from coal boosters and former council members, but only scorn from environmental groups who cast the council aside as a special interest group trying to prop up a dying coal sector.
Members of the council, once chosen, will advise Energy Secretary Chris Wright on all matters related to coal and the coal sector. They will include individuals from the coal mining sector, utilities that use coal, transportation companies, host communities, groups involved in environmental remediation of coal mining sites and regional development experts.
Trump is pushing to revive coal — used for power and steelmaking — despite unfavorable market realities, layoffs and a growing string of bankruptcies in the sector. The administration is offering financial lifelines to opening up more public land and truncating environmental reviews to boost coal mining, and ordering coal-fired power plants to stay online.
