WASHINGTON, D. C. – Flanked by dozens of hard-hatted coal miners at a ceremony in the White House East Room, President Donald Trump on Tuesday signed four executive orders at the White House meant to rekindle the coal industry after years of decline.
“The value of untapped coal in our country is 100 times greater than the value all the gold at Fort Knox, and we’re going to unleash it and make America rich and powerful again,” Trump proclaimed.
He said that with electricity-intensive technologies like artificial intelligence coming online, “we need to more than double the energy, the electricity that we currently have” to “be number one,” and said coal is needed to accomplish that.
His actions come as Ohio faces a looming energy crisis. Electricity-hungry data centers have proliferated in the state, with more planned in the coming years. Power projections show that demand for power in Ohio soon will outstrip the grid’s supply.
State lawmakers have been wrestling with how to increase that supply — in part by attracting more natural gas development to the state. Natural gas has become the dominant energy source in Ohio as coal has waned.
The orders Trump signed will allow continued operation of some older coal-fired power plants that were scheduled for closure, lift barriers to coal mining, encourage coal exports, and instruct federal agencies to identify coal resources on their lands and prioritize coal leasing there.
They also order the Attorney General to identify state laws aimed at cracking down on air pollution and “take all appropriate action” to stop their enforcement.
“It is a national priority to support the domestic coal industry by removing Federal regulatory barriers that undermine coal production, encouraging the utilization of coal to meet growing domestic energy demands, increasing American coal exports, and ensuring that Federal policy does not discriminate against coal production or coal-fired electricity generation,” one of the orders says.
A statement from Zanesville Republican Rep. Troy Balderson, a member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee who attended the signing ceremony, called Trump’s executive orders “a critical step in unleashing America’s abundant natural resources and protecting the prosperity and well-being of all Americans.
“The previous administration tried its hardest to force our baseload energy—including coal power plants here in Ohio—into early retirement, creating a reliability crisis for our grid,“ Balderson said. ”The President is taking much-needed action to ensure we can meet surging power demand while also keeping electricity prices down for consumers.”
Coal production and its use to generate electricity has declined for years as power sources like natural gas, solar and wind became more viable. The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) says electric generators plan to retire 8.1 gigawatts of coal-fired capacity in 2025, or 4.7% of the total U.S. coal fleet that was operating at the end of 2024.
EIA says that coal was Ohio’s dominant form of electricity production for decades until 2019, when it was supplanted by natural gas. In 2023, coal fueled 24% of the state’s net generation, down from 69% in 2013.
A spokesman for Akron-based FirstEnergy says the utility operates two coal-fired plants in West Virginia but doesn’t currently own or operate any in Ohio. The company had not had a chance to review the executive order and declined comment on its potential impact.
Ohio’s Electric Cooperatives runs several coal fired power plants through Buckeye Power. Ohio’s Electric Cooperatives president and CEO Craig Grooms released a statement that said coal-fired power is at the core of its ability “to deliver reliable, affordable electricity – especially during Ohio’s cold winters and hot summers.
“OEC is pleased to work with an administration that makes the reliability of electricity a priority,” Grooms’ statement said.
Ohio is also a hub for coal mining, with EIA estimating it has more than 4% of the nation’s recoverable coal reserves. It said that in 2022, seven of the state’s 10 operating mines were surface mines and the other three were underground mines. Half of the Ohio coal distributed domestically in 2022 was used in the state. Most of the rest was shipped to Kentucky and West Virginia, and almost all of it was sent to electric power generators.
Ohio is among the top 10 coal-consuming states in the nation, according to EIA. In 2022, it used about nine times more coal than it mined. The extra coal it used came primarily from West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Illinois, and Kentucky. In 2022, the electric power sector used 85% of the coal consumed in Ohio. Most of the remaining coal went to coking plants for use in the steelmaking process. Other industrial users also received a small amount.
According to the Ohio Coal Association, the coal industry currently employs 3,000 Ohioans, down from a high of more than 50,000 in 1918. It says the decline is partly due to decreased production and technological advances that allow increased productivity. It says that each miner can currently extract 48 tons in an eight-hour day.
Cleveland.com has reached out to the Ohio Coal Association for comment on the executive orders. The head of the National Mining Association, whose members include the Ohio Coal Association, said Trump’s action prioritizes “how to responsibly keep the lights on, recognize the enormous strategic value of American mined coal and embrace the economic opportunity that comes from American energy abundance.
“It’s a stark shift from the prior administration’s punitive regulatory agenda, hostile energy policies and unlawful land grabs,” said the statement from mining association president and CEO Rich Nolan.
Environmental groups decried the action, with League of Conservation Voters vice president Matthew Davis describing it as a “19th century energy policy.”
“After starting a global trade war that will mean higher prices on everything, Trump’s next move is to try to revive the expensive, dirty, and dangerous coal industry that peaked 20 years ago,“ said Davis.
He said that that coal-fired power plants have been closing because there are cheaper and cleaner options like wind and solar power. He cited a recent analysis, that indicates 99% of existing U.S. coal plants are more expensive to run than replacement by local wind, solar, and energy storage resources.
“The pollution from coal plants has long been known to cause developmental delays in children, asthma, cancer, and premature death,” said Davis. “Forcing more coal onto the public will only benefit a small group of polluting corporations while driving families’ energy and medical bills higher.”
