The Trump administration announced plans Thursday to spend as much as $850 million on coal projects, an energy sector that has long been in decline but which President Donald Trump has sought to revive and rebrand.
At an Oval Office announcement, Trump said the government would spend up to $425 million for 13 coal plants around the country, as well as give $75 million to build the West Gateway Terminal Project in California, which could ship coal abroad. The funding was made available after Trump last month invoked the Defense Production Act.
The announcement additionally includes plans to provide up to $350 million in Energy Department grants to build two new coal plants in Alaska and West Virginia, as well as modernize an existing plant in Puerto Rico and restart a plant in Cumberland, Maryland, that stopped operations in 2024.
Also on Thursday, EPA announced it was easing federal haze requirements to ensure a coal plant in Wyoming could remain online, while the Energy Department issued an emergency order to keep a coal plant in Florida online that was slated to close this month.
